Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

What I was doing last night was playing around with making a CO2 scrubber. Only because I can and I'm an experimental phase right now may as well take advantage of it.

I have a phosphate/carbon reactor I haven't used for quite some time and put some soda lime in it. Then ran the T for the air line I have going to the ozone generator to the CO2 "scrubber" in between.


The left hose turned forward for the picture (will be turned down for operation) pulls air in and has a tube shoved it that runs up to the ozone generator. The right side that's turned up has a hose shoved in it that goes to a T for the skimmer air in take. The other side of the T goes to the skimmer cup and shuts down the skimmers production ability if it attempts to over flows.

The T

It's been running since last night and has effectively raised my pH average from around 7.9 over the last 3 days with nothing higher then 8.09 up to averaging above 8.10 and for the past several hours hanging around 8.20+

Pretty cool, easy, and relatively cheap. I got a 5 gallon pail from medvet for $87. Have no idea how long it will last but should be a while.

 

[jason2459]

Here's a screen shot I grabbed earlier today from reeftronics

Shows the immediate before and after effects of the CO2 Scrubber. The big spike up in the middle is when I went ahead and calibrated my pH probe one more time last night before bringing the CO2 scrubber online just to make sure what it's reading is accurate and tested back against the solutions which matched up well.

Edit: oh and the basement reefkeeper pH probe says 8.36 so it also went up.

 

[jason2459]

pH has maintained over 8.2 all day and hit a peak of 8.31. All the display tank lights are now off so I don't expect it to go much if any higher. Basement sump probe shows 8.56. It's been staying around .2 higher.

On another note my single RBTA that quickly became a twin and eventually some triplets are now quadruplets. It looks like I just caught the tail end of it. Wish I could have seen the whole thing. Had 3 a few hours ago and had to work on some stuff and came back to the largest one split in two.

Can barely see the previously split off one with one tentacle visible from a crack in the rocks above the big cave above the cleaner shrimp hanging upside down.

Looks to be about equal sizes. The two lowest on the right.

Last little bit remaining tying the two together. Really hard to get zoomed in digitally and with just the blue leds on but its right in the middle of the picture between the two splitting apart.

 

[jason2459]

My now 5 BTA's

So, I've been told my rose bubble tip anemones are called many different things. From rainbow to sunburst BTA. No idea other then I like them.

 

[jason2459]

CO2 scrubber has been doing great the past few days. Display pH has been in the high 8.2's to peaking around 8.31 and hasn't been below 8.20 since breaking that barrier. The basement pH probe has been following the trend as well and is still consistently around .2 higher. Got some pictures of the displays of both controllers tonight.

Basement pH

After cleaning out my skimmer cup and doing a couple other things I got up to my display unit and here it is

Here's the soda lime I got from medvet online

And I think it's been 3 days and the fist 1.5 cups is not quite half way changed colors. Maybe get about a week or so before changing it out. We'll see in a few more days where its at.

 

[jason2459]

This one spot was pretty thin when I got it and looking pretty healthy now.

Maybe to healthy. I should stop feeding so much...

This guy is giving me the evil eye just thinking about doing that

 

[jason2459]

Watching a new series on PBS called Life on the Reef. Great show.

 

[jason2459]

So it looks like my tank is 6 years old today. At least the core of it is that got transfered over from my old 55g.

 

[jason2459]

Have to add fish on an anniversary. Been a while but here's a few additions. I miss having my lyretails anthias and added in male and two female Indian ocean lyretails. Then also one of my favorite dwarf angels that I was wanting along with the flame before the coral beauty caught my eye. A bi-color and hoping the others don't pick on it but has been ignored all day. I've also ramped up my feeding from 3 to 4 times per day (12, 3, 6, and 9) along with the 1-2x daily of meaty foods and the algae sheet.

Some pictures of the new additions.

The male is gorgeous and has some very nice colors and markings all over even the fins.

 

[jason2459]

Love the bold colors of the bicolor angel. Pictures do no justice.

 

[jason2459]

Looks like a new page. Several pictures in the previous page for my tanks 6th year birthday.

Some of my other angels behaving like little angels

 

[jason2459]

My yellow belly actually got in a couple pictures. Usually they look way worse as he's either blurred out from constantly moving or saturated in blue

One of the four RBTAs moved down the rock entrance of the big cave.

 

[jason2459]

Some more pics as I was called out for not having a 6 year old FTS birthday picture.

Hoping one of these pictures come out. Just going to take pictures right into the post.

 

[jason2459]

Scarlet cleaner shrimp looking full of eggs

 

[jason2459]

Yep, I think that the LED lights on the ATS were off for quite a while previously.

 

[jason2459]

Great looking growth now with the LEDs on. Imagine that.

Front

Back

Front

Back

 

[jason2459]

Soda lime about 90% exhausted. Not bad for 7 days.

 

[jason2459]

About 1 more day left maybe. Will watch the pH. It's been maintaining above 8.2

 

[jason2459]

Just a sliver left of unchanged soda lime. I'll keep watching the pH to see when it trends back down. Probably will have to change it out tomorrow night.

 

[jason2459]

Something released a bunch of eggs.

Little greenish balls

Now you see them and now you don't

These were quickly taken care of by the coral beauty.