Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

My yellow Fiji leather is finally starting to look good. First time I've really seen it really open up and full of polyps. I kept wanting to adjust its position or lighting or anything to help but figured as temperamental as they are any help would most likely be bad. So, I left it alone just waiting for it to start looking good. There were a couple black areas on the fringe I was watching too as I've read that's bad and to cut it up or out. Decided to watch and wait to see if those black patches grew. Well they are now gone. Glad I proactively did nothing.

My baby mushrooms are growing well.

 

[jason2459]

Note: I'm over having a group of chromis. Thought it would be kind nice watching them gather together. Instead I just feel like they add clutter and a sense of ADHD. It's like they are everywhere constantly darting around like a distracted hyper dog. But 7 of them. Wife says she like them but it's just not peaceful for me. I guess I like fish like my mimic tang just slowly moving around the tank grazing. Even my yellow belly blue hippo tang drives me nuts at times as he seems to sense when another fish is pooping and darts all over the tank with his nose up their butt eating fish poop. I would not be sad if any of the chromis becomes a snack to one of my anemones.

 

[jason2459]

Well, I now have two speckled RBTAs. The little guy that quickly got bigger is now two little guys.

 

[jason2459]

Oh yeah, and some time this afternoon while I was gone the maxi mini moved finally from its nook. Where? I've no idea. He's not plastered against my pump or stuck to my overflow. So, I have no idea where its at. He's pretty small so could be anywhere. Just my luck he'll stay behind my rock where I'll never see him again.

 

[jason2459]

With just the blue channel on allowed me to spot the maxi mini as its red really pops. And of course it's in the back behind the rock work.

 

[jason2459]

And these two wanted to say cheese earlier

I also noticed earlier I have some kind of polyp hitchhiker with the yellow Fiji leather

 

[jason2459]

Very happy how my tank is coming along. Big difference from a month ago. Here's the back side of my tank that was pretty hairy looking. You can actually see that single point of rock contact now.

This dragon head was completely covered

 

[jason2459]

Ha! So here's that before shoot

 

[ColinAbi]

Sorry about the flood and hope you're ok now

 

[jason2459]

Sorry about the flood and hope you're ok now

Yep we're doing good now. Thanks.

 

[jason2459]

This green bubble tip is starting to get darker now which I think is good. It seemed a little pale before. Getting bigger to. Seems to be liking this side most recently. He can open up on this site or the other under the rock he's attached to.

 

[jason2459]

I should probably stop feeding them...


But here's my next round of new additions. A beautiful pair of royal grammas. I've wanted one of these for a long time. I added one many years ago to my 55 and never saw it again. Just disappeared. These two are already swimming all over. Probably looking for a cave to call home.

 

[jason2459]

In my massive invert die off back around October last year all my coraline algae died off too. I wasn't to sad about that. But it looks like its coming back again now that my rock isn't covered in GHA, brown sludge, or cyano anymore. I have some dino here and there but its phasing out too.

Here's my gbta with purple tips in just natural sunlight and showing that coraline making a come back again.

 

[jason2459]

And the last set of fish I'll be adding for a while. Again another fish I tried some time ago when starting out but failed miserably with because of a lack of a QT process. Capt'n suggested both of these to me a long time ago and I fell in love with both but at the time I didn't feel good to attempt both in a 55g. But in a 180 I figured if I can add them at the same time I may be fine.

Two dwarf angels. One coral beauty and one flame angel. It was a flame angel I failed with before.

 

[jason2459]

To bad you really can't see some of the colors on the coral beauty. She has a few different shades of blue from light to very dark and around all the fins is this light electric blue highlight. I picked that one out first and had the LFS hold her until they got a flame angel in I could get at the same time. Only took them a week to get one in. They've been doing great together so far and eating very well. I'm really surprised and disappointed they electric blue highlight isn't coming through in pictures.

 

[jason2459]

January 10th
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23402806

So, this is why I love this log so I can look back on this stuff because I certainly can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago.

I noticed tonight my second stage DI with color changing resin looks like it's fully changed colors. That took almost exactly 3 months from when I added that in as new resin and added a third stage with new resin. My third stage is still completely blue and brand new

My now first stage that was "exhausted" visually 3 months ago and was registering 1 on my TDS meter that would normally be tossed in a single stage setup is now registering a whopping 2. So, its still able to take my 10 TDS post RO membranes and effectively reduce the TDS with supposedly exhausted resin.

My second stage that just fully changed colors is registering 1 TDS and on a dual stage setup I would be tossing the first stage resin and placing that second stage into the first stage and adding new resin.

Well, here I am now three months into adding that third stage and going to keep it all in place. Pre-first stage 10 TDS, after first stage into the second with 2 TDS, and from the second to the last stage 1 TDS and looking like new leaving the unit with 0 TDS.

That's awesome. This will save on quite a bit of resin. I will have to update again when I'll eventually have to swap stages.

 

[muttley000]

Great to hear, I just added 2 more DI units after the original DI that came with my system. My post RO membrane water is usually about 20 to 25 so I won't make it as long as you do. Also put a dual read out so I can see what's going on. Thanks for the idea!

 

[jason2459]

Wow, you must have pretty high TDS levels in your tap. I think I've got around 250-260 going into it. Getting around 96-97% rejection rate. I've thought about getting the spectra pure 99% rejection rate membranes but I also want my higher flow rate I've got now.

 

[jason2459]

And the twins are getting big.

The green is tucked away right now but when he's out he's gotten a lot bigger. All of them are still in the same spots I out them. With the addition of the rose splitting.

The minimax is in a nook that's hard for me to see but light goes through a hole on top of where he's at so seems to be happy there. Its been there for quite a while now. The rock flower I can just make out with just the blue lights on which makes it glow nice and red...behind all the rock. Go figure.

At least I have been able to fully enjoy my bubble tips.

 

[jason2459]

I was scared to get the Fiji yellow but its been doing good so far. I think its gotten a little bigger. There are times though that freak me out as it gets all shriveled up with no polyps. But then it comes right out of it the next and looks great again