Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[markalot]

How does the PH run with the external intake? We live in the woods and even with outside air into the skimmer I can read 7.75 PH on the warmest of nights. I'm really not sure what temperature has to do with it but there seems to be a correlation. In the winter the tank rarely drops below 8 PH.

^^ My tank is unique in that I run glass lids and have reduced evaporation, so the 7.75 number can certainly be raised if I need to by increasing the evaporation rate.

 

[mhucasey]

I have a huge skimmer and the pH started trending up immediately. I will give it a day or so more then post the graph from the Apex. Its a significant improvement for sure.

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Matt. Looking good!
I love having a school of fish in the tank. I opted for the blue eyed cardinals.
I've had 10 or so since starting up the tank.
They don't always stay in a tight knit group but when they do, it's very cool.
Your total iodine reading of .06 is right on the money but is it always there? From what I've read, iodine is very unstable, or depleted quickly from the system. What test kit do you use, what iodine product do you dose and how often?

 

[fessoclown]

I have been a lurker in your thread for a while, figured I'd post my condolences for your Borb. Totally sucks! I lost mine after only 3 days with it... something ripped though my tank killing off all but 2 fish in 3 days... brook or velvet, was never sure...
I will absolutely be getting another after my fallow period... it was/is one of my favourite fish... like a little Dr. Seuss character.

I looked around and bought this:

It is a cyclonic filter for sediment. I plan on constructing a Tank Vaccuum for the system to make the process really easy. It will be plumbed into the sump with its own feed pump to grab detritus that lands there, and will have a separate inlet that I will plumb to a connector near the top of the tank. It will pull gunk out of the sump but when I want to vacuum the system ill just connect a flex hose to the extra connector, close the line from the sump off, open the flex line pipe, and suck out the gunk. It will be like those house vacuums that have outlets in each room of the house.

I may have the outlet of the cyclonic filter empty into a sock as well, ill have to see how efficient this filter is. If it works as shown, i will just open the bottom valve and drain off detritus from time to time.

This looks very interesting.... perhaps you could post a video once you get it all set up, currently I vacuum into a filtersock but that device looks cool. I tried to google it but didn't find a retail link, can you post where you got it please...

Your tanks are awesome!!! Thought I'd let you know that I am tagging along...

 

[mhucasey]

Hey Matt. Looking good!
I love having a school of fish in the tank. I opted for the blue eyed cardinals.
I've had 10 or so since starting up the tank.
They don't always stay in a tight knit group but when they do, it's very cool.
Your total iodine reading of .06 is right on the money but is it always there? From what I've read, iodine is very unstable, or depleted quickly from the system. What test kit do you use, what iodine product do you dose and how often?

I love the Cardinals, but its a bit bright for them in the tank. I had a school of glass cardinals a while back and I had to make a shade for the corner or I would never see them

I actually had done a fairly large iodide addition pretty recently and that was what prompted me to run a test. Thant and the new anemone was shrunk up and looking poorly. Since it tested out at 0.06(Salifert Total iodide) it was probably too high right after dosing the day before.

As to the Nem... It was fine an hour or so later. It didn't cough up any Zooxanthellae, but it may have been too much light. I lifted the light up an inch or so since I hadn't seen colors improve where it was at anyway(5.5" off the water).

 

[mhucasey]

I have been a lurker in your thread for a while, figured I'd post my condolences for your Borb. Totally sucks! I lost mine after only 3 days with it... something ripped though my tank killing off all but 2 fish in 3 days... brook or velvet, was never sure...
I will absolutely be getting another after my fallow period... it was/is one of my favourite fish... like a little Dr. Seuss character.



This looks very interesting.... perhaps you could post a video once you get it all set up, currently I vacuum into a filtersock but that device looks cool. I tried to google it but didn't find a retail link, can you post where you got it please...

Your tanks are awesome!!! Thought I'd let you know that I am tagging along...

Welcome! Yes the Borb is a fish packed with personality and its gorgeous as well. Ill be getting another for sure, just letting the tank get stable for a bit longer.

The filter is a Rusco spin-down sand separator, I got it through Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C3VUCS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

There are some demo videos on youtube that convinced me to get it. Ideally I will get this set up tomorrow so Ill take pics of the finished product. I Hate Mechanical filters that trap particles like a filter sock does, but this kind of filter is a whole different thing. I hope it will work!

Thanks for tagging along!

 

[reefmutt]

Glass cardinals.. That what I have. I've always called them blue streak or blue eyed.
They have a couple of good ledges to hide under but they are more often out in the open..
Mine hid all the time when they were pretty much the only fish in the tank. Once I added some flasher wrasses and firefish, they all started coming out all the time.
I guess they just need to see some fish 'out there' that weren't getting eaten by some huge predator.

 

[JB NY]

The filter is a Rusco spin-down sand separator, I got it through Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004C3VUCS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

There are some demo videos on youtube that convinced me to get it. Ideally I will get this set up tomorrow so Ill take pics of the finished product. I Hate Mechanical filters that trap particles like a filter sock does, but this kind of filter is a whole different thing. I hope it will work!

I hope it works too, I am excited to see it in action on your tank!

 

[aggie13reef]

Holy chromis! I bet they look pretty neat moving around your reef. What size are they right now?

 

[mhucasey]

I hope it works too, I am excited to see it in action on your tank!

Me too, and I need it right now, I've had a bout of cyano in the SPS tank. I have been siphoning out detritus and cyano every other day but last night I did a very extensive vacuum job. The cyano doesn't seem to care about the extreme flow in the tank, and has been growing on the rocks and cutting board bottom.

I'm being patient and letting it run its course, but in the meantime I have plumbed the pellet reactor directly to the skimmer inlet rather than just near it. Hopefully this will limit the amount of cyano food that hits the tank.

Once I get this new filter set up I will be able to quickly siphon out any gunk without having to set up a filter sock or worry about siphon hoses falling out of the sump and making a mess.

 

[mhucasey]

Holy chromis! I bet they look pretty neat moving around your reef. What size are they right now?

Yep yep they flow all over the reef in groups, its very cool. They are little ones, maybe 1" each.

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, with all the changes, you basically have a new system.. Or at least a seriously disturbed system (it may just need a little therapy ). Bound to be some settling in.. The cyano shouldn't be a huge surprise..
Took mine several months to finally go away on its own..

 

[mhucasey]

Matt, with all the changes, you basically have a new system.. Or at least a seriously disturbed system (it may just need a little therapy ). Bound to be some settling in.. The cyano shouldn't be a huge surprise..
Took mine several months to finally go away on its own..

Yep, it is to be expected. With three drain downs on the LPS heavy tank as part of this process, there is a lot of die off in the rock to be sure - though the test numbers don't show much. I know it will settle out, hopefully soon. The SPS looked a little cruddy in the last few days but the LPS have never looked better, go figure.

 

[biggles]

That school of chromis look terrific Matt, my three glass fish make an amazing display...........:debi:

Bucky looks cool, what does he eat mate.

 

[mhucasey]

That school of chromis look terrific Matt, my three glass fish make an amazing display...........:debi:

Bucky looks cool, what does he eat mate.

A school of fish swimming around the reef is very cool for sure

I think Bucky may be a "special needs" fish. So far he hasn't eaten much of anything, and just swims back and forth against the blue overflow wall. I've tried to feed him mysis, several types of brine, and live black worms with no success.

 

[glaukos]

Wow buddy you have done an amazing job!!!
Everything looks awesome!

Do you have any fights between your chromis?

 

[mhucasey]

Wow buddy you have done an amazing job!!!
Everything looks awesome!

Do you have any fights between your chromis?

Thanks Mike, there is a lot of manual removal of cyano right now, but I hope that the worst of it is over

As for the Chromis, no, they are too little for that. I've lost a few, which is to be expected as they had just got to the store when i picked them up. They always lose a portion of them right away.

 

[mhucasey]

For Sahin, this should really make your head hurt:

 

[reefmutt]

:eek1:
Yaouza!!!

 

[mhucasey]

I've got some wiring to clean up but the plumbing is more or less complete