Oldude's new 400 gal tank build
- Thread starter Oldude
- Start date
Thanks Leonardo. I'm hoping the soli will return to at least it's former glory as seen below from a pictures from about a year ago where it was growing into the glass in my old tank. It was a bit shaded there too so we'll see what happens over the next few months but least it's not completely browm anymore.Great update(s) Greg, you see the colors already trying to emerge on the Soli.Do you have a picture of the whole Pocci colony, really amazing PE on that one.
Leonardo
My little bright pink chalice- grow baby grow!
Here is an update on my crazy acro nobody seems able to ID and I can't find anything quite like it in Corals of the World. It grows smooth branch ends and then they slowly fill in with tight fairly complex corallites and it grows more smooth growth tips. Even though it is quite unusual I'm still trying to decide if I really like it since the body stays so brown....even though I've had it for almost 3 years the verdict is still out.
Here is an update on my crazy acro nobody seems able to ID and I can't find anything quite like it in Corals of the World. It grows smooth branch ends and then they slowly fill in with tight fairly complex corallites and it grows more smooth growth tips. Even though it is quite unusual I'm still trying to decide if I really like it since the body stays so brown....even though I've had it for almost 3 years the verdict is still out.
Bummer
Bummer
I haven't seen these two for a few weeks so I am assuming they never made it. I am also missing my Hawaiian 4 line wrasse, I think the 6 line the culprit.
Bummer
Just picked up a pair of these groovy fire fish:fish1:
I haven't seen these two for a few weeks so I am assuming they never made it. I am also missing my Hawaiian 4 line wrasse, I think the 6 line the culprit.
Today I think I'm feeling more blue than any of the corals. This hobby can really suck sometimes. For some reason last night my skimmer went nuts and pumped out about 100 gallons of stinky water all over the floor so I have been dealing with a huge mess all day and am kind of wondering why I even bother. (yep I'm feeling ****ed off & sorry for myself right now) As murphy's law would dictate I of course didn't have any new water made up and even the fresh water res was almost empty so I have been making new water all day too. Thanks goodness I have a 300 GPD RO unit, it's for this type of emergency that I decided to buy the big one so there is a silver lining there. I'm a bit worried about doing this big of a hit with Reef Crystals because I'm sure it will cause an Alk spike in the system. I really need to make the time to go pick up some RBS. Anyway sorry to vent, I'm just having a bad day.
Thanks Bradley and yes I had sworn I would never get another 6 line but thought maybe with the extra room in this tank it would be ok but I guess they are jerks no matter what the circumstances are.:blown:
delphinus
New member
Very sorry to hear that Greg. Is there anything I can do to help? Just let me know.
I don't know what's the cause of this, but for some reason, the tank on which I have a needlewheel skimmer does something similar about once every 2 months. It simply goes berserk and fills the collection cup. I had this on another tank in the past with a needlewheel skimmer as well (different brand). For this reason I have the skimmer in sump so that excees skimmate is simply returned to the tank however having dirty skimmate rereleased is hardly ideal as well. I wonder how many others have this phenomenon as well. The first few times it happened to me it coincided with some reef epoxy being used, but it's now happened to me at least 6 or 7 times since then when I had done nothing in the tank previously. I don't know if it's a spawn event (snails?). I don't think it's a blockage in the skimmer itself because it's literally that the water foams 10 times more than normal, the whole sump becomes a foamy and frothy mess.
Anyhow, I hear you on the frustrations part. Please do hang in there! Your tank is an inspiration to so many (including myself!!) And please do let me know if there's anything I can do, I can be over in a flash once my meetings are over today.
I don't know what's the cause of this, but for some reason, the tank on which I have a needlewheel skimmer does something similar about once every 2 months. It simply goes berserk and fills the collection cup. I had this on another tank in the past with a needlewheel skimmer as well (different brand). For this reason I have the skimmer in sump so that excees skimmate is simply returned to the tank however having dirty skimmate rereleased is hardly ideal as well. I wonder how many others have this phenomenon as well. The first few times it happened to me it coincided with some reef epoxy being used, but it's now happened to me at least 6 or 7 times since then when I had done nothing in the tank previously. I don't know if it's a spawn event (snails?). I don't think it's a blockage in the skimmer itself because it's literally that the water foams 10 times more than normal, the whole sump becomes a foamy and frothy mess.
Anyhow, I hear you on the frustrations part. Please do hang in there! Your tank is an inspiration to so many (including myself!!) And please do let me know if there's anything I can do, I can be over in a flash once my meetings are over today.
Thanks Tony but all is pretty much back to normal now. It just picked a bad time to happen although I guess there isn't a good time but I am swamped today with both work & trying to get some frag orders out the door. My mandarins were spawning again last night, I even got some poor quality video, and right after they blew their load I shut the lights off to stop the other fish from eating it all so I'm thinking that might be what set it off. If their spawn protiens went into the overflow it would be pretty close to the skimmer pump and I was skimming pretty wet because I had the skimmer turned down while I was away last week. Boy am I ever glad this didn't happen when I was away or it may have been devistating to the reef.
I guess the RO unit paid for itself today as I was able to make 100 gal of fresh water by noon.
delphinus
New member
Wow, that's awesome. I think you just convinced me I need me to save up for one of those!!
Untamed12
New member
Very glad to hear to overcame that little bump.
I remember where your skimmer was sitting...maybe you can just place some sort of basin underneath the skimmer to catch the overflow if it ever happens again.
You could also tap a 1/4" bulkhead into top side of the collection cup to provide emergency overflow to wherever you want it to go.
I remember where your skimmer was sitting...maybe you can just place some sort of basin underneath the skimmer to catch the overflow if it ever happens again.
You could also tap a 1/4" bulkhead into top side of the collection cup to provide emergency overflow to wherever you want it to go.
I have the collection cup modified and it drains into a 5 gal bucket which is normally plenty but this was just a freak incident and as I mentioned it drained out about 100 gal. I've never thought about doing the top side as well, thanks for the idea.
lastlight
Premium Member
I'm not sure it's possible but can you somehow elevate the skimmer and bucket to be above the sump? So the skimmer still drains into your 5 gallon bucket if need be? Then plumb an emergency drain into the top of the bucket that leads back into your sump?
Sorry to hear of this mishaps. I am always able to help out as well during reg work hours.
Sorry to hear of this mishaps. I am always able to help out as well during reg work hours.
Untamed12
New member
Oh yeah, so you really don't use the skimmer collection cup at all...the skimmer cup drains constantly into the 5 gal bucket.
Did the skimmer cup overflow?..or did the 5 gal bucket overflow?
I'm thinking that normal flow into the 5 gal bucket is pretty small. Berzerk flow would exceed that by quite a bit. If the line going to the bucket is really small, then you could tap the skimmer collection cup up higher so that that line would only become active if the skimmer was going nutso.
Better to allow the skimmer collection cup to overflow into the system than allow the 5 gal bucket to do the same because the 5 gal bucket might have a few gallons of stuff in it when the situation happens.
Dave's Reef
New member
Hey Gregg,
Bummer about your skimmer mishap... I've never had a 100 gallon mishap but I've had my fair share and know your pain! Glad you got it worked out and hope your corals do well with all that new salt water going in. I had to replace about 3/4 of my water at once from scratch like you described and some of my corals didn't like it too well, no too well at all.
Hopefully all is well and you have a speedy recovery! Keep us posted....
Bummer about your skimmer mishap... I've never had a 100 gallon mishap but I've had my fair share and know your pain! Glad you got it worked out and hope your corals do well with all that new salt water going in. I had to replace about 3/4 of my water at once from scratch like you described and some of my corals didn't like it too well, no too well at all.
Hopefully all is well and you have a speedy recovery! Keep us posted....
bradleyj
Reefkeeping Mag Staff
Wow. Sorry to hear this Greg. That's my worst nightmare, and I think about it everytime I'm out of town working. which I am right now. I usually have to travel out of town about 8-10 times a year, usually for 2 weeks at a time and my wife hates it. Luckily I have a great support sytem if anything ever happens my wife has at least 5 experts she can call and they will be there in minutes. that's the great thing with haveing a great reef club in your area, lots of friends to call on.
A couple of months ago I was in Seattle working and I got a frantic call from my wife telling me everything had shut down and only my vortechs were working. Well my gfi plug had tripped which runs my ACIII. This shut down everything but my closed loop and vortechs, which are on battery backup. I had to calm her down first and then explain to her step by step how to reset the breaker. She called my friend who owns an LFS close to me and by the time he got there, she had it back up and running, he checked everything out and it must of been a power surge, but I sure felt helpless while the whole thing went down.
A couple of months ago I was in Seattle working and I got a frantic call from my wife telling me everything had shut down and only my vortechs were working. Well my gfi plug had tripped which runs my ACIII. This shut down everything but my closed loop and vortechs, which are on battery backup. I had to calm her down first and then explain to her step by step how to reset the breaker. She called my friend who owns an LFS close to me and by the time he got there, she had it back up and running, he checked everything out and it must of been a power surge, but I sure felt helpless while the whole thing went down.
