High Nutrient Macro Algae/Sea Grass Reef

[Chasmodes]

Yes, the barnacle blenny is the trickiest fish to see. It is directly below the the GBTA and to the right of the Midas blenny. Only it's head peeks out of a coco worm tube so it's hard to see. Sorry to have drove you crazy!

OK, I see him now. Yup, tricky. No problem! I love stuff like that. Kinda like the books my daughter loved so much, "Eye Spy". Back in when I was a little kid, there was a kids magazine in the docs office that had a hand drawn picture where you had to find all of the objects in it. I forget what it was called, but it was my favorite thing to do when waiting for the doctor in the waiting room. I think the magazine was called "Highlights" or something like that.

 

[vlangel]

OK, I see him now. Yup, tricky. No problem! I love stuff like that. Kinda like the books my daughter loved so much, "Eye Spy". Back in when I was a little kid, there was a kids magazine in the docs office that had a hand drawn picture where you had to find all of the objects in it. I forget what it was called, but it was my favorite thing to do when waiting for the doctor in the waiting room. I think the magazine was called "Highlights" or something like that.

I remember loving those "Highlights" magazine also. Like you, I had to wait til I was in a doctor's office to enjoy them and most of the time someone else had already done the best puzzles, but I still enjoyed looking through them.

 

[Chasmodes]

Hi Dawn. Any updates? How are your fish doing?

 

[vlangel]

Hey Kevin, it's all good news regarding the tank and fish. Both are doing great. My coral have never looked better and the fish are all very healthy and happy. It's really nice. (Of course now that I have said that, some heinous disaster will be fall the tank and fish, LOL).

 

[vlangel]

Kevin, here is a pic that I just took. I did not clean the glass so try to overlook that.

 

[Chasmodes]

Stunning. Your "dirty" glass makes my tanks look clean!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Your tank looks great. It's a testament to your methods, that you're able to maintain such a thriving community of fish, inverts and plants. Brava!

 

[vlangel]

Stunning. Your "dirty" glass makes my tanks look clean!

Thanks Kevin! I am glad that I can help, LOL!

 

[vlangel]

Your tank looks great. It's a testament to your methods, that you're able to maintain such a thriving community of fish, inverts and plants. Brava!

Thanks Michael! Yes, right now at this moment my methods are working for me. I am going to enjoy this for as long as it lasts!

I am especially enjoying my anemone pedestal. There are now 6 rainbow BTAs on it, which makes for a rather dramatic effect. Of course it was all by carefully thought out design as opposed to merely being a happy accident! Ok I confess, it actually was a happy accident, LOL!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Wow six BTAs! It's not an accident that you provided the conditions for them to flourish. I know what you mean about enjoying it while it lasts. But do enjoy it!

 

[vlangel]

Sorry that I have not been around for a couple of weeks. We have had our grand kiddos here so things have been hopping! They left this week and now we are recovering and getting back to normal, LOL.
The timing for everything worked out well, as this morning I woke up and realized that something was not right with the aquarium system. I noticed that the water was not up to the rim in the display tank. Upon further investigation the refugium is flooded and the sump is close to empty. My guess is the overflow in the fuge lost it's prime. Right now I have an aerator going in the fuge and the display is aerated by it's power head. After my coffee and shower I will get my hands wet and see what is really going on and report back.
I am just really happy this did not happen when we were on our 5 day motorcycle trip or while the kiddos were here.

 

[Chasmodes]

Oh my. By flooding, do you mean water on the floor, or the level of the fuge was too high? Good luck solving this issue!

 

[vlangel]

Things have been rectified and simplified in the High Nutrient Aquarium system.
I could not positively identify what went wrong between the fuge and the sump. It was not a total loss of prime because some water was still flowing through the whole system but at such a diminished rate that the fuge had overflowed. That leads me to believe that something went into the diy overflow and partially clogged the pipes so that the full flow could not go through. With the full flow being pumped up to the display and draining down to the refugium, it eventually raised the water level in the fuge til it overflowed. I had not replenished evaporation water for 4-5 days so the water on the floor was probably only a few gallons since my fuge had room for more water.

Anyway, all in all things weren't too bad. I did think about what if this had happened when Dave and I were away however. That thought prompted me to remove the 20 gallon long sump and have the 30 gallon fuge double as a sump and fuge tank too. I have had good luck with HOB overflows but having 2 on the system (especially with the basement one being a diy project) increases the risk of a failure, (as today proved). My refugium has worked amazingly from a biological filtration aspect but never was as display worthy as I had hoped. Now with the return pump in it, it is even more utilitarian and less display worthy but that is ok with me. I am willing to give up aesthetics for a more reliable overall aquarium system.

Oh my. By flooding, do you mean water on the floor, or the level of the fuge was too high? Good luck solving this issue!

Both, but it's not as bad as that sounds. My fuge and sump tank are in our basement next to the well room. It's a concrete floor, (partially covered with indoor/outdoor carpet) with a drain right there. Nothing is damaged by the spillage and very easily cleaned up.

 

[vlangel]

New refugium/sump pic. I used a lot of the live rock that was in the sump to cover up the return pump and also to lift it off the sand. In actuality, the fuge, now turned sump doesn't really look too much worse than it did before. It still has all the rock and sand that the system had before so the filtering capacity is probably the same. The only difference is less water volume, I am guessing about 15 gallons or so. Maybe I should do a little bigger water changes for a while but I really don't think the system will be impacted much.

 

[Chasmodes]

I think it looks good and will do just as good a job filtration wise. The only surface area that you lost was the glass, no biggie. Water volume is nice to dilute nutrients and stuff when they're high, but, if you have to dose any meds or anything, now you can dose less than before.

 

[vlangel]

This must be the week for aquarium trials. The Aqueon 56 gallon column tank has rim of about 1 and half inches. I have my HOB overflow box adjusted so that the water is about an inch below the top but still above the bottom of the rim. However yesterday I noticed that the water was higher and only about a quarter of an inch below the top. Probably when I moved the return pump into the refugium, the head pressure was lessened so the flow is slightly higher thus raising the water level in the display. I am not comfortable with the water being that close to the top of the tank so I decided to adjust the plastic bolts and wing nuts to slide the inside part of the overflow box down a little. Unfortunately, my HOB eshopps overflow box is old and one of the bolts snapped off, uhhg!

So off to Lowes I went to see if I could replace it. It seemed that fate smiled upon me in this instant because Lowes did have a plastic bolt that was the correct size. As an added bonus, while I was replacing it, I removed the U-tube that was totally algae covered on the inside and cleaned it with a bottle brush. Now I can see how much flow is going through the U-tube and make sure that bubble build up is not creating a risk of losing the prime in the U-tube. The really great news is that the slightly more flow through the system is a perfect match for the overflow box. No bubbles at all build up but it's not so much that the drain makes a flushing noise. So, at the moment everything seems to be running like a well oiled machine....at this moment, LOL.

 

[Chasmodes]

Well bad luck but a fantastic recovery! It sounds awesome. Do you have a float valve on your sump?


My luck wasn't so good yesterday, but, the fight isn't over LOL. I'm so close to my new tank set up being done.

 

[vlangel]

Well bad luck but a fantastic recovery! It sounds awesome. Do you have a float valve on your sump?


My luck wasn't so good yesterday, but, the fight isn't over LOL. I'm so close to my new tank set up being done.

Yes, it turned out well. The fight is never over because something can break at any time. It's the nature of the hobby. I just try to have enough redundancy to catch most issues.

No, I do not have a float valve. As an aquarium tech, I witnessed too many mishaps of float switches sticking on which lowered the salinity and crashed tanks. I would rather manually fill the sump every 4 days.

I hope everything goes well for your new tank from here on in. I am so excited to see it up and running!

 

[Misled]

Dawn, how's your codium doing?

 

[vlangel]

Dawn, how's your codium doing?

It's the best I have ever had! It's in the display tank, too. It must like the new ReefBreeder LED. I am really glad that I moved a sprig to the display because the codium in the refugium melted away.