Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

Just over the gallon mark this morning. The new skimmer is keeping on pace of producing around 3 cups per day running pretty dry. I can't get a picture of the foam anymore as the collection cup is completely coated now. I'll take some pictures tonight and clean the collection cup out. I haven't hooked up the swabbie neck cleaner yet. To busy with other stuff to mess with it. I'm thinking now I may not add it on until the end of playing around with the different venturi's, plumbing, and pumps. Gorilla tape still covering the hole.

 

[jason2459]

Some cool stats

Aquamaxx Em 300
Air draw: ~38-40 scfh
Watts: rated 27watts actual: 31.38watts
Skimmate produced: ~1 cup dry/day and ~3cups wet/day

Mag18 as return pump w/ ~12' head height
Watts: rated 150watts actual: 71.18watts
Flow: rated 1500gph@0 head actual: ~750gph@12' head pressure

Mag18 with MVX stock venturi
Air draw: ~12-14 scfh
Watts: rated 150watts actual: 62.96watts
Skimmate produced: ~3 cups dry/day


It is only its first week running but its so far producing probably just over double the skimmate at slightly under double the power consumption. Also, well under half the air draw which tells me its processing more water and allowing more efficient contact time. Which is probably as mentioned above why its more stable when feeding that LRS.

This also tells me that venturi is putting more pressure on the pump then the 12' of head height it was working against as a return pump.

Thats impressive.


Everything caked in dry skimmate. Its not looking wet at all. I would say dryer then the dry skimmate I was running with the EM300

 

[biecacka]

Jason, how many fish are in your tank, and what are your feed Feeding habits to the tank. That's a TON of skim and gunk for such a short period of time.
Also have you noticed any decrease in skim since you have been running the ATS? I know it's two different things to a degree but some ppl think some particles get caught up in e ATS and bread down there....

Corey

 

[jason2459]

Jason, how many fish are in your tank, and what are your feed Feeding habits to the tank. That's a TON of skim and gunk for such a short period of time.
Also have you noticed any decrease in skim since you have been running the ATS? I know it's two different things to a degree but some ppl think some particles get caught up in e ATS and bread down there....

Corey

I never noticed a decrease in skimmate due to the ATS.


Fiji Yellow Leather (8" diameter maybe)
Duncan (50ish heads)
bunch of red mushrooms (15+)
ORA red goniopora (3ish" ball when fully retracted)
purple haze monti (2+" frag and growing)
9 RBTA's
1 GBTA
1 small head of some kind of euphyllia coral
1 frog spawn that hasn't recovered from a bad alk spike about 2-3 month ago
1 birds nest that also hasn't recovered from that bad alk spike
some kind of gorgonian coral (3ish") that's finally recovering from that alk spike a few months ago

Then I also have a LOT of sponges.

Fish:
Yellow Belly Blue Tang (~8")
A. pyroferus mimic tang (~6")
Desjardini Sailfin Tang (~5.5")
Yellow eye Kole Tang (~4+")
One spot fox face (~6")
2 Orange side fairy wrasses (~5")
Potters Leopard Wrasse (~5")
2 False Percs (~3.5")
Banggai Cardinal (~3.5")
Blue Dot Sleeper Goby (~5")
Yellow Watchman Goby (~5")
Flame Angel (~3.5")
Coral Beauty Angel (~3.5")
Bi-Color Angel (~3")
Matted file fish (~3")
9 blue green chromis (~1-2")
cleaner wrasse (~1.5")

1 fighting conch
a few turbo snails
several other various snail
handful of blue leg hermits
tons of worms
999231409312840932850293840329849832749324809238408923794832709483 various pods

lots of aiptasia in the sump where I like them with a couple in the display


Way to many asterina stars.

2 common starfish from kp aquatics

1 rapidly growing purple short spine rock urchin

Several peppermint shrimp


I'm sure I'm forgetting something.


Feedings:
4x per day my automatic feeder dumps in some pellets NLS marine and NLS algaemax mixed together (12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm)
2-3x per day I dump in some meaty foods
2-3 sheets of nori per day.

 

[jason2459]

And I always forget Ive got a red minimax. At least thats what the LFS thought it was. Its looking more like a rock flower anemone.

Oh and some alien egg looking coral

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

 

[ksed]

I am wondering if you will notice a decrease in algae production on the ATS with this new skimmer. It appears to be doing much more than the EM 300.

 

[jason2459]

I am wondering if you will notice a decrease in algae production on the ATS with this new skimmer. It appears to be doing much more than the EM 300.

I guess I'll just have to feed more. [emoji1]

The EM300 has been my favorite skimmer for consistency and price. I know it may not be the best skimmer ever but its a great bang for the buck. I'm a fan of the sicce based needle wheel pumps after that skimmer and the previous seaside aquatics I had.


But I'm just blown away with this MTC MVX. To bad its so tall as it just wont work well for large tanks with stands only. I guess thats one reason needle wheel skimmers got so popular.

 

[ksed]

Try to feed the same as you would and see if algae production goes down. Would definitely be interesting to see if this could even be possible . It would also show how much of an impact the skimmer could have.

 

[leviburns89]

That nem garden is gorgeous. You have great bubbles and coloring in your BTAs.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[jason2459]

That nem garden is gorgeous. You have great bubbles and coloring in your BTAs.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Thanks, that all grew from a single small rbta

 

[jason2459]

That little euphyllia that recovered much better then that poor frogspawn.

Poor thing. I keep hoping it will do something

]

 

[jason2459]

It's not tank of the month. Never will be. Lots of corals growing over each other doesn't interest me. I like fish and crawling critters more then corals. I do like wavey stuff and wouldn't mind it if my tank was over run with anemones. Plus having one bad issue in what seems every couple years causes me to restart with the corals.

 

[leviburns89]

How often did you directly feed your nems, if at all?

I've witness nems splitting a ton due to constant feeding vs growing one huge head when fed once a week.

Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[jason2459]

How often did you directly feed your nems, if at all?

I've witness nems splitting a ton due to constant feeding vs growing one huge head when fed once a week.

Thoughts?

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Very much a direct correlation for my rbta. I started off feeding directly some mysis every couple days. My single rbta split. I then started feeding directly once a week. One split again. I started feeding directly every couple weeks. Another split. Went to once a month. Another split...

Needless to say I no longer feed directly. They snatch enough food when I feed meaty foods 2-3 times a day. I broadcast feed.

 

[jason2459]

 

[jason2459]

My phone made this animation

 

[jason2459]

I love this skimmer

Tonight will be 3 days and the skimmate level in the davy jones is right at 1/2 gallon. Will check again tonight and imagine it will be slightly over that mark again producing around that 3 cups per day dry.

I also checked the killawatt and dwyer and its still averaging just over 62watts and 12-14 scfh.

I think I'll clean out the cup tonight and swap to the 784 venturi. [emoji4]

 

[jjvanb]

Love the pic of your goniopora, how long have you had it? I read somewhere that long term success with them can be elusive.