My 500 + gallon system. Last 13 years to now. Build, Aquascaping & more. Lots of pics
- Thread starter slief
- Start date
slief
RC Sponsor
LOL. I had to pull my durso from my overflow. I have a double durso that I made and I think one pipe was taller than the other so when when we were filling the tank most of water came from one of the pipes from the tank and was nearly overflowing one of the overflow boxes in the sump behind the filter sock trays. Another few seconds and I would have been testing my pond liner. :eek2: Fortunately it was an easy fix and will be subject of the next episode which I think he will film this Thursday.
My ich is still out of control though some fish seem to be improvinig while others look worse. I was concerned that all of my plumbing and additions may have introduced chemicals into the water so I decided to stop the Kick Ich treatment for a few days and run some carbon. I also added a heater to the sump and raised my water temp from 79/80 to 82 with hopes of accelerating the ich cycle. I plan on resuming the Kick Ich treatment in a few days.
Yesterday I added 150 pounds of live sand to the 100 pounds of mud in my fuge. Its now about 4-5" deep. My Chaeto seems to be growing and the 10 or so mangroves seem to be happy. Now I just need to be patient I guess.
The ich situation has me really bummed. I have been doing the salt water fish thing for more than 24 years. Its been more than 10 since I had a bout with ich. I just hope that my fish will rebound now that I am done screwing around with their enviornment.
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Love the sump and the fuge!!! The skimmer looks pretty awesome as well, but have you thought of putting the beckett back on line in conjuction with your cone skimmer??? Or would that be overkill for your reef??? Also have you added any cleaner shrimp lately??? That should take care of the problem in my experience anyway when I had an ick outbreak. Good work and glad you got rid of the bioballs. The liverock alone that you have in the main tank and the fuge is efficient enough for biological filtration. In my opinion the bioballs in the filter socks are unecessary as well and will clog up with crap very quickly.
Great episode from Jim...
Marc
slief
RC Sponsor
Thanks Jim. I do have 4 or 5 cleaner shrimp in the tank. Maybe I need to add more.
At this point I have no plans to put the beckett back on line. I would have to add another pump for it which is not in my current plan. So far the Alpha seems to be equally as capable so two skimmers would be probably be overkill in my opinion. I am planning on removing the balls from the socks over the next 30-60 days. I am just keeping on eye on my Ammonia and nitrite to make sure there isnt a spike. With the 4 socks, I think I can go 2 weeks between sock changes. It will be a week tomorrow and so far the socks seem fine though I will probably swap them this weekend for piece of mind.
dahenley
New member
When you pulled your wet/dry, it looked like you just put the balls in a 5gal bucket dry. With them being dry-dryed out, wouldn't that kill the good stuff that was previously housed in them. If so, technically your socks are preventing the spikes because they are catching all the dead stuff from the balls. I was wondering what your opinion to that is? I think if they were kept wet then it would be a good thing. (Just curious to what you think)
Also, I can't wait to see the new video. I went and looked at all 5 of them.
Also, I can't wait to see the new video. I went and looked at all 5 of them.
dahenley
New member
When you pulled your wet/dry, it looked like you just put the balls in a 5gal bucket dry. With them being dry-dryed out, wouldn't that kill the good stuff that was previously housed in them. If so, technically your socks are preventing the spikes because they are catching all the dead stuff from the balls. I was wondering what your opinion to that is? I think if they were kept wet then it would be a good thing. (Just curious to what you think)
Also, I can't wait to see the new video. I went and looked at all 5 of them.
Also, I can't wait to see the new video. I went and looked at all 5 of them.
slief
RC Sponsor
My thought was that they would be a good thing for the short term. I kept some in a bucket with wet news paper on them and what wouldnt fit in the bucket, I put into a plastic bag. Both the bucket and the bag were kept in a closed 55 gallon plastic drum during that time. The balls were definately kept moist for the 18 or so hours they were out of the tank so if there was loss of any bacteria due to being out of the sump, it would have been minimal.
I have tried a refugium three times before going high tech and using biodenitrators and fluidized bed filters filled with rowaphos and carbon. I tried the mud from Eco system and got nothing but cyanobacteria. Also in the my fuge was nothng but cyanobacteria from excess nutients from the mud such as nickel and cadnium. I could not get the chaeto or even caulerpa growing even with my high levels of nitrate and phosphate!!! So what are you trying to accomplish with the mud? You might actually see some cyanobacteria growing from the mud addition itself and in the main display as well. That was my experience. That is why I had to finally quit and abandon the refugium idea all together. So now I went the public aquarium approach and now just have a large sump as well as a huge skimmer and sulfur bio-denitraor as well as two fluidized bed filters for phosphate and chemical filtration as well as the computer equipment. Nothing has ever been so easier than this system. Also Jim metioned on his episode that you had this as a shark tank... Got any old pics to share of what it used to look like before the reef???
Thanks and good luck to you,
Marc
Dante_JoseCuerv
New member
Love the tank!!!! I'm especially jealous of the vlamingis! ::superjealousy!::
As a fellow long-horn cowfish owner I congratulate you. I've had mine for about 2.5 years. He's the king of my 90, though his waste output is becoming very obvious.
At any rate, love the tank!
As a fellow long-horn cowfish owner I congratulate you. I've had mine for about 2.5 years. He's the king of my 90, though his waste output is becoming very obvious.
At any rate, love the tank!
slief
RC Sponsor
I decided to add some float switches to my setup. They will be needed for the future ATO and maybe auto water change but I also wanted them to insure my skimmer doesnt overflow when the sump is overfull from a pump shutdown.
I picked up an Apex breakout box as well as four reef fanatic float switches. I chose the reef fanatics based on the fact that they had a nice little jack on them. Really, I didnt need the Apex breakout box as I could have used a mini din plug and wired my own breakout box to plug into the apex instead of the RS232 cable that I used but it came out clean and functional.
I went to Rat (radio) shack and picked up a small project box as well as six head phone style female plugs and a surface mount 9 pin serial style connector. I drilled holes for the jacks, cut a hole out for the 9 pin and soldered away.
This is the finished result. A nice little box to plug up to 6 float switches or other switches in. I might add a couple cabinet door switches so the light turn on when the doors open. Again, I could have used a din cable and eliminated the Apex break out. Hind sight is 20/20..
Back side of my breakout box.
Front side.
Break out boxes mounted with float switches connected.
2 of the 4 float switches mounted in the sump. One for high level and one for low level niether are adjusted but I have tested their operation and they work like a charm and shut one skimmer pump off when the water level raises to far. I figured shutting one pump will keep it from overflowing but leaving the second one on will keep it from taking too long to build a head again.
Ich situation is better with some fish and worse with others. Its killing me! I picked up new bulbs for my old 60w UV filter and I am thinking about hooking that back up to aid in the ich situation. I have not resumed the Kick Ich treatment as I am still running my carbon reactor.
I picked up an Apex breakout box as well as four reef fanatic float switches. I chose the reef fanatics based on the fact that they had a nice little jack on them. Really, I didnt need the Apex breakout box as I could have used a mini din plug and wired my own breakout box to plug into the apex instead of the RS232 cable that I used but it came out clean and functional.
I went to Rat (radio) shack and picked up a small project box as well as six head phone style female plugs and a surface mount 9 pin serial style connector. I drilled holes for the jacks, cut a hole out for the 9 pin and soldered away.
This is the finished result. A nice little box to plug up to 6 float switches or other switches in. I might add a couple cabinet door switches so the light turn on when the doors open. Again, I could have used a din cable and eliminated the Apex break out. Hind sight is 20/20..
Back side of my breakout box.
Front side.
Break out boxes mounted with float switches connected.
2 of the 4 float switches mounted in the sump. One for high level and one for low level niether are adjusted but I have tested their operation and they work like a charm and shut one skimmer pump off when the water level raises to far. I figured shutting one pump will keep it from overflowing but leaving the second one on will keep it from taking too long to build a head again.
Ich situation is better with some fish and worse with others. Its killing me! I picked up new bulbs for my old 60w UV filter and I am thinking about hooking that back up to aid in the ich situation. I have not resumed the Kick Ich treatment as I am still running my carbon reactor.
slief
RC Sponsor
Thanks guys!
Jim was here last night and took some more video for the next epiisode. He was pretty disapointed by the ich situation. Some fish look better while some look worse. He was dead set on copper treatment where as I was reluctant. Still time will tell but I am sure we will hear about it in the next episode.
He was impressed about with finished product and that will be highlighted. I would expect it to go up within the next several days.
Jim was here last night and took some more video for the next epiisode. He was pretty disapointed by the ich situation. Some fish look better while some look worse. He was dead set on copper treatment where as I was reluctant. Still time will tell but I am sure we will hear about it in the next episode.
He was impressed about with finished product and that will be highlighted. I would expect it to go up within the next several days.
Please for the love of GOD, DON'T LET JIM DOSE COPPER!!! That would defenetly cause more problems down the line. Just feed well with plenty Selcon and other vitamins and some garlic and it should clear up by itself.
Marc
dahenley
New member
copper "IN" a reef tank is BAD!!!!!
another option, (which i have heard of, but never actually done this) is to do a fresh water dip. i have heard that if you pull the infected fish and dip it in fresh water for X amount of time, and then you can re-introduce it to the tank. i hope others chime in, because i def dont want to lead you in the wrong direction.
i hope you get it figured out.
also, i had one incident with ich, and good feeding and garlic solved mine. just wanted to share.
another option, (which i have heard of, but never actually done this) is to do a fresh water dip. i have heard that if you pull the infected fish and dip it in fresh water for X amount of time, and then you can re-introduce it to the tank. i hope others chime in, because i def dont want to lead you in the wrong direction.
i hope you get it figured out.
also, i had one incident with ich, and good feeding and garlic solved mine. just wanted to share.
