Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[sahin]

For Sahin, this should really make your head hurt:

Owwwww

Regarding the Cyano, let it run its course. It will eventually go away.

 

[mhucasey]

Owwwww

Regarding the Cyano, let it run its course. It will eventually go away.

Yep, I've counseled patience before, but it's always harder to do it yourself I added snails a few days ago to help clean up and have been vaccuuming it out nightly, and it is now on the decline. I have had several days of acros looking poor, everything other than millies having very little polyp extension. I wanted to do something to help but I know it just needs time.

Last night I saw clear growth on the bases of many of the acros, so that is encouraging. I cleaned all the gyres with a quick scrub and with clean paddles, the flow is wide and strong again and the corals seemed to respond to that right away.

My testing has showed calcium and alk above 8 for 3 or 4 days straight, even with the dosing pumps off. I was confused but I will let the value drop til close to 7 before dosing any more. Above 8 I had a few burned tips

 

[JB NY]

For Sahin, this should really make your head hurt:

That. is. crazy. :wildone:

I have pretty much two pipes coming down and one pipe going up. I tee three fittings off my return for skimmer, chiller and algae reactor. Yours is just so much...more :hammer:

That picture for some reason reminds me of the children's game mousetrap.

 

[mhucasey]

That. is. crazy. :wildone:

I have pretty much two pipes coming down and one pipe going up. I tee three fittings off my return for skimmer, chiller and algae reactor. Yours is just so much...more :hammer:

That picture for some reason reminds me of the children's game mousetrap.

Hee Hee! Believe it or not at least 70% of the piping was able to be constructed from pipe and fittings I already had(leftovers from previous projects). It is mainly complicated because two tanks are fed from the one sump.
Maybe I'll label the piping sometime in a picture for fun. The lines are:

Two return lines from the system pump
Three Drains from the Shallow SPS tank(beananimal Style)
Two drains from the second tank(modified beananimal)
One supply and one return for the skimmer
One supply and one return from the pellet reactor
Two supplies and one return from the cyclonic filter/filter sock loop(Cyclonic filter is only working so-so)

I like having all the equipment external - I hate cleaning critters off the outside of equipment like I did when the equipment was in a sump.

 

[Wazzel]

For Sahin, this should really make your head hurt:

Yikes, you got a P&ID for that?

 

[JB NY]

I like having all the equipment external - I hate cleaning critters off the outside of equipment like I did when the equipment was in a sump.

I agree, only my heaters are in the sump.

 

[mhucasey]

Yikes, you got a P&ID for that?

Not yet but I work with P&IDs at work for my job, maybe I can get one of the CAD guys to whip one up for me

 

[mhucasey]

I agree, only my heaters are in the sump.

I'm down to one Tunze Silence and the heater in there. The silence is only there because it leaks

 

[Wazzel]

Do you have an concerns with the transformer plug hanging upside down (top left of pic)? Some times they are heavy enough to unplug under their own weight. You might want to consider holding it in with a velcro strap.

If my system was that complicated I would make a P&ID.

 

[mhucasey]

Do you have an concerns with the transformer plug hanging upside down (top left of pic)? Some times they are heavy enough to unplug under their own weight. You might want to consider holding it in with a velcro strap.

If my system was that complicated I would make a P&ID.

Oh, no that one is really light, it is for powering the LED strip lights in the cabinet. Its actually a little work to get out. Its a good suggestion though, and I have Velcro strip to spare, so Ill strap it down.

I obviously have more wire management to go in the cabinet too, and a few more pipes to anchor. This project is a long term slog...

 

[wcharon]

For Sahin, this should really make your head hurt:

Can you tell me what Strip Lights you are using inside the cabinet??

Thanks in advance..

 

[mhucasey]

Can you tell me what Strip Lights you are using inside the cabinet??

Thanks in advance..

Sure, it's one of these:
http://www.frys.com/product/6745235?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

[cugly]

Owwwww

Regarding the Cyano, let it run its course. It will eventually go away.

Man what you got going on here. Is that a boiler room.

 

[biggles]

Man what you got going on here. Is that a boiler room.

I'd be taking an EPIRB with me if i was going to do any work in there Matt, some food rations wouldn't hurt either just in case it takes them a few days to get you out. :spin1:

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
Well the cyano is slowly but surely going away, and the corals have been looking better in the last day or two. For a while there everything that wasn't a millie was keeping its polyps in. There is definite growth on the bases of most of the corals and so I'm happy with where things are.

I did make a change with the Gyre pumps, turning them vertical, one in each corner on the wall that is opposite of the overflow.

The outlet shoots water down the side panels and then hits the overflow wall, where it curls toward the center. The flow from both sides then collide in the center of the overflow wall and turn into a return stream back through the middle of the tank. This return stream collides with the sump return and there is more chaotic flow because of that.

I will put each one on the Apex so I can turn one off at a time to further change up the patterns. All in all it is doing a better job of pushing detritus over the overflow and gives the corals a lot of random diffuse flow as well.

 

[mhucasey]

Well the old Nitrate/Phosphate/Carbon balance has once again amazed me. Ive been dealing with some seriously snotty cyano issues in both tanks, but especially in the SPS shallow reef. Every day the plastic rock would be covered, the cutting board bottom would have a forrest of strands, and it was a big mess. I'd siphon it out and the next day it would be back. As I said in my last post, a bit of improvement had occurred by Sunday, but it was very slow. The whole time, zero green algae.

I have tested for phosphate several times and come back with zeroes all around on the Milwaukee Phosphate tester. I had not been able to test for Nitrate as everyone local had been out of the test kit. I figured there was enough die-off to provide a near constant source of Nitrate, so I was baffled by the amazing amount of growth of cyano. Cyano should thrive either in very low nitrate conditions where it can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, or in low flow areas on nitrogen sinks like sand or rock where it can grab Nitrogen gas and phosphates that leach out.

I had this stuff all over plastic rock and plastic that I know doesn't leach anything. I decided to try adding some nitrate just to see what would happen. I added 1/4 tsp Calcium Nitrate to start. About 3 hours later I noticed polyp extension on two corals that had not extended polyps in weeks. This was on Monday. I went ahead and ordered a test kit and ended up receiving it Tuesday.

Tuesday the tank had noticeably less Cyano, and small gas bubbles on all the cyano that was still there - very much like the symptoms of a Zeostart overdose in the zeovit system(zeostart has nitrate and carbon). I tested the water and got a value of just over 10ppm for Nitrate...whoops! A bit higher than I wanted, though the addition I made should have only raised Nitrate by a couple PPM. I vacuumed again per usual protocol.

Today the tank was significantly better! The cyano on the plastic rock is receding away - I didn't have to do much to the rock at all for a change. I scraped some sheets of algae and cyano off the bottom, but these areas were the same or smaller than the day before. Much less bubbles in the Cyano as well. I tested Nitrate and it was down to 5ppm. Corals were looking pretty darn good, with PE that was ridiculous:

This is a very turgid Tort!!

Anyhow, the Cyano will be out-competed if there is enough Nitrate around to give its competitors the edge. I don't know if I just gave the system a nudge or if I had a bad test on Tuesday or what, but there has been a significant change after the nitrate addition. Previously I had to add Nitrate for a while until the pellets balanced out, I may be in for doing that again. I'm just glad something worked!

 

[biggles]

I'm not going to dance around the issue Matt, that plumbing is the sort of thing a crazy guy does. :rollface: I'm sure i speak for everyone when i say i hope none of those hundreds of glue joints start drawing a tiny amount of air filling the display with micro bubbles...... just enough to push an already crazy guy right over the edge....:fun4:

That's interesting about the nitrate levels and the sudden cyano die back. You must be relieved to see that great PE returning to the acros buddy. I'm really pleased to hear that you're turning the corner mate :thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

Thanks for providing the great detail on the tank and startup issues. I'm still getting my head around balancing my tank, which has had cyano for months but it takes a few weeks for it to build to annoying levels. If I don't use a PO4 remover mine will spike in a matter of days, even without feeding the tank, so if I can get my pellets to drive nitrates to near 0 I suspect nitrate dosing is in my future.

Do you use sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate?

I agree with Andrew on the plumbing.

 

[mhucasey]

I'm not going to dance around the issue Matt, that plumbing is the sort of thing a crazy guy does. :rollface: I'm sure i speak for everyone when i say i hope none of those hundreds of glue joints start drawing a tiny amount of air filling the display with micro bubbles...... just enough to push an already crazy guy right over the edge....:fun4:

That's interesting about the nitrate levels and the sudden cyano die back. You must be relieved to see that great PE returning to the acros buddy. I'm really pleased to hear that you're turning the corner mate :thumbsup:

If i was sane I wouldn't spend this kind of money or time to grow colored sticks!

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks for providing the great detail on the tank and startup issues. I'm still getting my head around balancing my tank, which has had cyano for months but it takes a few weeks for it to build to annoying levels. If I don't use a PO4 remover mine will spike in a matter of days, even without feeding the tank, so if I can get my pellets to drive nitrates to near 0 I suspect nitrate dosing is in my future.

Do you use sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate?

I agree with Andrew on the plumbing.

I use calcium nitrate, i bought a pound of the stuff about two years ago for a couple of bucks from aquariumfertilizer.com