glparr's NPS project

[glparr]

Western,
A FTS isn't worth it. Most of the tank space is taken up by SaraB's chalice collection, which I'm caring for until she gets her tank situation straightened out; my clam; and a couple of pipe organ colonies. In other words, as an azoox aquarium, it has no visual appeal, i.e., it's a jumbled mess. Eventually it'll be just azoox corals with my clam on one end, only because it's home to my 20-yr.-old clownfish, and will remain so until the clownfish dies. A pain from an NPS perspective, but that's the way it is.

Gary

 

[Western_reefer]

Western,
A FTS isn't worth it. Most of the tank space is taken up by SaraB's chalice collection, which I'm caring for until she gets her tank situation straightened out; my clam; and a couple of pipe organ colonies. In other words, as an azoox aquarium, it has no visual appeal, i.e., it's a jumbled mess. Eventually it'll be just azoox corals with my clam on one end, only because it's home to my 20-yr.-old clownfish, and will remain so until the clownfish dies. A pain from an NPS perspective, but that's the way it is.

Gary

Ah, come on. lol Doesn't matter if it doesn't look good yet! Just post a FTS. It will be good as you will have before and after pictures.

I am in the plans of upgrading from my 28 gallon nano cube to a 40 gallon breeder which is the same size as your tank. My tank wont be full azoox, but a mixed reef with lots of azoox animals.

 

[glparr]

Salifert says that nitrates have dropped to 10! Whoo! Hoo!! I'll do a LaMotte test in the morning to confirm. I love progress!
Gary

 

[flying_dutchman]

How's the crinoid doing?

A FTS isn't worth it. Most of the tank space is taken up by SaraB's chalice collection, which I'm caring for until she gets her tank situation straightened out; my clam; and a couple of pipe organ colonies.

Hurry up Sarah! lol j/k

 

[glparr]

Flying,
Crinoid is doing well, though it moves around a bit more than I care for. I'm hoping that will stop as the nitrates drop.

Sara's getting her tank and water situation straightened out. The chalice collection will be going home when she's ready. They're all much bigger than when they arrived. I might do a little fragging in the next week or two. At $100/eye, the frags will be a bargain for the buyer and verrry profitable for me.

Gary

 

[Harald Waltrop]

Compliment for the beautiful pictures. A very nice project.

 

[SaraB]

Hurry up Sarah! lol j/k

I'm working on it as Gary said! I've got a 268G to take down and a new rimless tank to put back up first.

I might do a little fragging in the next week or two. At $100/eye, the frags will be a bargain for the buyer and verrry profitable for me.

Holy smokes Gary, you are giving those away too cheap!!! I better get moving before you start selling frags off! :hammer:

 

[glparr]

Yup, priced to sell!

 

[Aquabacs]

Gary good to see the pellets are working out I would still continue to add them slowly over time and tweek the volume until you get nitrates where you want them. How have your phosphates been testing? Any noticeable difference or need for less GFO yet?

Dan at Avast Marine is working on a pair of larger custom reactors for my tank...hopefully it should be ready in two weeks or so and should look pretty hot. The pellets short term have been impressive; nitrates are staying below 5 on their own without doing a water change. Now, this week, I also have been able to start to reduce the GFO use by 1/4 cup every 5 days but that could be more due to the light LC dosing than the pellets but time will tell.

Mike

 

[glparr]

Mike,
OK, I'll add some. Phosphates are minimal. I removed GFO yesterday. It had solidified in the reactor, so wasn't doing any good anyway. The skimmer is producing more waste but nitrates are not dropping like I expected. Still at 10+. Also, the corals seem stressed today. I have a bit of a bacteria cloud in the water. Going to be patient for a day and see how things shake out. I'll put another 50 ml of pellets in tomorrow. A little nervous about things at the moment.
Gary

 

[Aquabacs]

Gary I would hold adding any more pellets until the tank is back clear. Once it is clear, test, then add more. Also have you run into any issue with the foam being to thick and not braking when it hits the top of the cup?

 

[glparr]

The haze has cleared since I last posted. Something is changing/working. I think the pellets are starting to take effect. The foam is thicker and darker. It can't push the lid off because my skimmer is a G2 and the lid locks on. I cleaned the cup yesterday and had to clean it again today because the smell when I walked by the tank was rather strong. Maybe I'll add a small amount of pellets in the morning if things test out and the water stays clear. I think I'm making progress. I'm just not very good at dealing with change in my reef tanks. Makes me too nervous.
Gary

 

[Aquabacs]

Gary don't be nervous Experimenting is what makes this hobby so dam fun. Changing things up once in a while in the tank can be good thing. It also can be bad but either way if you learn from it and get something out of it...it isn't done in vain.

Mike

 

[glparr]

You're right, Mike, but it still makes me nervous.

Turns out, after a good deal of study, that the "haze" was primarily caused by microbubbles that have found their way into the system. Taking steps to eliminate them. There is no bacterial bloom. Nitrates remain in the 12 range. I added 50ml of additional pellets this morning and slowed down the flow through the reactor. Mulm is appearing on the reactor surfaces and the pellets. I assume that's the goal. Skimmer output continues to increase and smell.

Most of the NPS corals are closed. I'm sure the prolonged high nitrate level is the cause. Interestingly, the Dendronephthya remains open and active. The crinoid moves daily. It can't seem to find a good anchor point. I also assume that nitrates are irritating it, thought it opens when food is in the water and hasn't dropped any arms.

Gary

 

[slapshot]

Your on the right track Gary. Just go slow and you will be fine.

 

[glparr]

Thanks, Don. Discovered today that I can be a complete bonehead sometimes. My azoox coral have been looking like crap for the past couple of weeks and I haven't been able to figure it out. In addition, the nitrates have not been dropping like I expected with the biopellets.

I have never been one to test water parameters because I've used B-Ionic for years and once I get a dose dialed in, I just put that much in every day, along with weekly water changes, and have never had an issue with alk, Ca, or Mg. Thus, I quit testing water because I always got the same results.

This morning, I decided to run an alk test on my azoox tank, figuring it would get the same results I always get, but "just to see." I was shocked to see that my alk is through the roof, i.e., I used a whole syringe of reagent with the Salifert kit and still didn't get a color change, meaning it's 16+! Now, it's an old kit and I'm going to confirm the test with a newer kit later this afternoon, but I wondered why it would be so high.

As I mentally went through what I've done with the tank in the past couple of months, I realized that I've sold off a ton of leather corals as I transition to a total azoox tank. But I never changed my dosing amount to adjust for having many fewer and smaller colonies. I couldn't believe how dumb. So, after I confirm the alk reading, I'll be doing daily water changes to slowly bring down the alk and get things back in line. I would also expect to see the nitrates drop as the biopellets are better able to function. I hope the corals recover.

Yet another lesson learned. I've been doing this reef thing forever. You'd think I'd figure it out one day.

Gary

 

[GreshamH]

Good find Gary!

 

[Terryz_]

Good to know that you found out what is bothering your tank..

 

[DarkXerox]

Yeah I noticed that my old salifert alk tests can definitely be off over time. I think some of it may be evaporation related, but its why I like how the new versions come with an alk standard. There was a 5 dKh difference from the old and new kit I had--the older kit not having the standard solution though.

 

[glparr]

The Tropic Marin alk kit read 17, so the Salifert is in the ballgame. Did a 10-gal water change, which dropped the alk to 14. That's too fast. It'll be 5-gal at a time for a few days. That's the nice thing about small tanks (this is a 40 breeder), you can correct these problems with relative ease by doing water changes. Still really irritated that I did this.
Gary