jdm01's New 90 Gallon

[jdm01]

I just got back from New Orleans last week. What a mess. I feel terrible for the city. It may never be the same. I was amazed at how few people were there compared to just a few years ago. The amount of damage remaining is amazing as well.

Anyway, I am done revamping my site. Feel free to click on the following link http://www.jdmenterprises.us/my_90_gallon_tank_inhabitants.htm and you will be taken to the page that has all of my inhabitants. They are thumbnails, so if you click on one you think you like, it will expand for you. If you have any idea what the ones are that i have listed as unidentified, please use my comments form and let me know what you think it is.

 

[jdm01]

It has been a long time since I have posted here. I got frustrated because i have not been able to tackle my algae problem. It is getting better, but i have a long way to go unfortunately. Below are some pic's that show where the tank is right now. I lost several of my SPS frag's somehow. I am going to start restocking this winter. In the meantime I am going to rebuild my skimmer this week using my left over Mag5 as the pump. We will see if that works or not. I am also going to redo a lot of the rockwork in the center of the tank. I bought some lace rock for the redo. It will look better than the egg crate that is in there right now. The fish are getting very large and my clams are growing to the point that I may have to remove the gigas soon. At least something is doing well in the tank.

I got frustrated and took some time off. hopefully the winter will allow me to get back into it again. The good news is that some of my LPS has done very well and continues to thrive. Below are some pic's of the tank and some critters i am not sure what they are. Help is appreciated.

Full Tank as of Dec 2, 2007

 

[jdm01]

Here are a few other pics. Also, note in the previous post the size of my 2 clams. They are growing beyond belief.

Polyps (Not sure what they are, but they are in a few places)

Pagoda and Algae (Not sure what got the Pagoda)

Starfish like critter

Strange critter. I have no idea where this came from, but it is probably 6-8 inches long and moves like lightning. Any help identifying is appreciated.

Not much progress, but this is where i will begin the year. Onward and upward!!! Have a Merry Christmas.

 

[jdm01]

Here are a few other pics. Also, note in the previous post the size of my 2 clams. They are growing beyond belief.

Polyps (Not sure what they are, but they are in a few places)

Pagoda and Algae (Not sure what got the Pagoda)

Starfish like critter

 

[jdm01]

I seem to have managed to rid myself of the nuisance brown algae - for the most part. there are still a couple of small colonies of the stuff left, but I removed as much as I could by hand and then took out the most infected rocks. I replaced them with dry rock and used the dry rock to cover the remaining infestation. Lack of light seems to have wiped out the majority of what was left.

I have noticed on my encrusting pagoda that the polyp extensions are still very good, but the "skin" is beginning to recede. I have also noticed a small place on my cup coral that is beginning to do the same thing. You can see the damage to the encrusting coral in my most recent pic. Any ideas what caused that. Clearly I am going to lose the encrusting pagoda. it is probably to early to tell on the cup coral. following are my water parameters:

Calcium (ppm) 440
(KH) Alkalinity (meg/L) 3.2
KH (Alkalinity) (dKH) 9.0
Salinity 1.028
Temperature 78
pH (acceptable 7.8-8.5) 8.0
Nitrate (ppm) 10.0
Phosphate (ppm) <.03 ppm .025

The salinity snuck up on me and I am in the process of bringing it back down. My concern is with the nitrate and phosphate numbers. I will probably take a water sample to the LFS just to have them double checked. What can cause nitrate and phosphate to creep up? I do not believe I am overfeeding. I am running phosguard in a filter sock in the sump. I notice some detritus (I assume) building up on the sump floor. could this be part of the problem?

 

[jdm01]

I have a maxima clam that is one of my favorite tank inhabitants. The intersting thing is that I tend to move it closer to the rock work about once per week. by mid-week it has walked all the way to the front of the tank to the point where the front of its mantle is touching the glass. The clam is thriving so it does not seem to be a problem, but it is intriguing that it continues to walk to the front.

 

[jdm01]

i posted my water parameters on the previous page. I know the phosphate/nitrate numbers are a little high compared to what the Salifert tests say they should be. Are they too high to safely add some new corals? I have a couple of coral frags that I would like to add, but do not want to do so until I am sure it is safe.

 

[jdm01]

I am going to check water parameters tonight, but the water quality must be improving. Adjusting water parameters, water changes, and the repairs that i made to the skimmer all seem to be helping. The lace rock that I put in the tank is growing a thin layer of green algae. Most importantly, my hammer coral and my cup coral both have outstanding polyp extension. The cup has never looked more healthy and the hammer looks like it has doubled in size in the last week or two. I will post a pic over the weekend once i clean the glass.

 

[jdm01]

Well I am back. I have struggled with this tank for nearly a year now and I have not been winning. I lost most of my coral, the coraline has receded, but the fish are still doing well. I have spent untold months struggling with phosphate and nitrate being excessively high.

To deal with the phosphate I just bought and installed a TLF 150 phosban reactor this week. My Phosphate reading has dropped from about 1.0 to about 0.25 in about 3 days. By the weekend that number should be back where it belongs.

To deal with the nitrate issue I replaced the stock skimmer with a Vertex 100. The stock skimmer was just not working. I tried a SuperSkimmer but i could never get it calibrated. The Vertex was super simple to set up. About 15 minutes. Unfortunately the pump broke 1.5 hours out of the box. I got a new pump in this evening and it seems to be breaking in. I will check nitrate this weekend. Nitrate is probably going to take some time and a lot of water changes to fix.

I am putting new cabinets in the basement over christmas break. I think i am going to add a RO/DI unit under the sink and try making my own salt water. I am getting tired of lugging 5 gallon buckets up and down the stairs.

Oh well. the tank starts again. I will post a baseline pic over the weekend and then document the progress from there. Hopefully this becomes an interesting tank over the winter. Premium Aquatics is great. I just figured out that they are less than 30 mins from my house so it looks like I will be able to restock my coral at a reasonable price.

 

[buccard]

the journey continues, good to read.

Good luck~!

 

[jdm01]

Less than a week in and my nitrate is down to around 25 and phosphate is down from 1.0 to 0.1. A little farther to go. The phosphate reactor was a huge help. The Vertex 100 is working exceptionally well now that I have a pump that works.

Apparently the Vertex has an issue with the pump where some of them can be defective. My second pump has worked flawlessly and it is really starting to skim junk out of the water.

I will take some new baseline pics of the tank this weekend including the new arrangement of the sump.

 

[jdm01]

Here are some pic's of what is left. This is the beginning of the rebuild project. I think I have some better equipment. The water parameters seem to be settling down quite a bit.

Full Tank Views

Sump and Vertex 100 Skimmer

Top Off Tank with Tsunami Switch

TLF 150 Phosphate Reactor

Nepthea

Hammer Coral

Maxima Clam

A couple of my inhabitants survived. The fish are outstanding. They have grown nicely.

 

[jdm01]

My livestock includes:

1 - Clark's Clown
1 - Pacific Blue Tang
1 - Yellow Tang
1 - Foxface
1 - Sixline Wrasse
1 - Black Sailfin
1 - Pajama Cardinal
1 - Blue/Green Chromis

I have red mushrooms everywhere and some green mushrooms that are doing very well I just do not have pic's right now.

 

[jdm01]

The phosban reactor has made a huge difference. A few weeks out and my phosphate reading is now down to 0!!! I am using up some phosguard from around the house and then I will switch back to phosban for maintenance purposes. Nitrate is down to 20 which is still not good. I have a long way to go, but it has come down some since the problem perked up a few weeks ago.

I switched to API test kits. I was struggling with the Salifert's. The API's are much easier to read, at least for me. calcium is still only 320 which is lower than I like, but at least I am growing coraline again. A couple more water changes and maybe I can begin slowly restocking the coral life again.

 

[jdm01]

Heading to the LFS to look at the coral selection. I am going to add a piece later today if they have anything I want. Finally got phosphate and nitrate down to 0. It has been a long haul, but water quality is back where it belongs and has been there for a while. The new skimmer and phosphate reactor really did the trick.

 

[buccard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14716801#post14716801 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jdm01
Heading to the LFS to look at the coral selection. I am going to add a piece later today if they have anything I want. Finally got phosphate and nitrate down to 0. It has been a long haul, but water quality is back where it belongs and has been there for a while. The new skimmer and phosphate reactor really did the trick.

Good to hear-nice to shop when you know your water quality is good