Z's upgrade build
- Thread starter bigzman
- Start date
Update
Update
Update:
I know it's been a long time and don't even know where to start with. Yes there has been some major setbacks and some cool progress.
I will start with setbacks:
Unfortunately my sump had a minor leak event and thankfully the tsunami guys were extremely helpfully in addressing the issue. I had contacted the original owner of sump in Orlando and he put me in contact with the tsunami support guys. They inspected to make sure sump was installed correctly and leveled. I was amazed the support they provided coming from a second hand purchase as it was never used to begin with.
After a quick repair I was up and running with in a weekend. Sadly I did lose the D.C. Power bricks for my jeboa returns with the leak. Thanks to reefbreeders I had replacements next day. Thank you reefbreeders.
After fish transfer and leak I hit the dreaded stress and ich. Not sure how it got into system as I am a QT advocate and nothing was added with out QT but powder blue came down bad with it. Tried catching it but no luck. He passed quickly with in the week. As much as I am not a fan of hypo I dropped tank salinity and started the dreaded wait for corals and focused on fish care.
At the same time I tried to figure out the events of transfer on what could be causing such stress. Even after 2 weeks hypo fish were still eating well but chasing each other aggression was new as they have been around each other for years. Thankfully buddy came over and pointed out something very obvious but just struck me. They were breathing heavy. At that point I kept testing and testing to see what was off and find stress point with no luck.(obviously ph was low 7.7 do to hypo salinity treatment). I ran carbon tank had cycled for months before that. So fortunately for me I have a great network of reefers nearby
I had started testing water with their test kits and found only one kit to be off (nitrate) still very high but differences in test kits was not by much and I have no corals. After some time and water changes I started getting cloudy water and a bad case of diatom bloom, yet no NH3 or nitrites. So I added 2 UVs one was a unit I had 24 watt and a loaner 48watt and yes it made a difference in water Clarity but did nothing for the stress and now the tangs are not eating.
At this point I started thinking getting out (that happens twice a month with this hobby) so I decided to install the RKE gift I got from Mike to control lights and reduce light time to help with diatoms. While installing and calibrating ph I read up on the orp settings and decided to use an older probe and the results with out calbration was shocking sub 100mv. I found that odd and ordered calibration solutions and results were the same. Didn't make much of it and with limited rke knowledge I ruled it as a possible false positive. So on with hypo treatment. Well lucky for me I was able to get a loaner new orp probe and even a salifert oxygen test kit (thanks Bill) and wow results were accurate poor fish were deprived of o2. i run a skimmer, but still odd this was even possible.
So I jumped to the easiest thing I can find to bring that up and dropped my trusty air pump and 24 inch airstone (which was in use in temporary holding tank Ibc 275 gallon since it was skimmer less for 2months) and ran it for over 2 hours. Amazing results on the rke orp side after 2 hours (over 150mv) and oxygen test improved drastically.
So I let it run overnight and by the next day lights coming on I was amazed that the rke was showing over 300mv. What was shocking was fish behavior no sign of ich and ph was at 8 and low salinity couldn't test O2 as kit was no longer available but I eventually ordered my own.
**please note I am not saying this cured my fish from ich and that is highly debated topic.
So after week 4 of hypo and now added oxygen via airstone along with skimmer diatoms are not visible and fish are eating as they use to with out garlci or Selcon. Still nitrates have now hit over 50 and at that point I changed out 100 gallons on top of the 40 biweekly which helped a bunch but not the answer more on this nitrate issue later. So far I have made it to 6 weeks with no signs of ich or diatoms and I started to increase salt at .1024 now.
So moving forward:
I have been a bit focused on a 850 gallon build (not mine) and work. But have been moving forward with getting up and ready for corals. Thanks to Mike I now have a Archon which tested my patience in the worse way but not archons or DA fault. Special thanks to Matt for helping me thru the reconfiguration and Eric from digital aquatics for the deep dive and technical overview on the archon. There is a great deal of potential in this controller and look forward to future updates.
I have also placed an order for a reef octopus regal 300 int which has a potential air draw of 2400 LPH vs my current eshopp 800LPH.
I finally got a hold of a par meter and wow it might be to much light. So I have lowered my reefbreeders white to 30 percent and blue to 70. I had readings well above 400 at bottom of tank. It was pretty uniform and minimal fluctuation.
Upcoming enhancements:
Humidity module for archon
Add more openings and fans to stand.
Add more biomedia (seachem pond matrix for a total of 12 liters).
Get bigger uv.
Add new skimmer
Finish my 120 gallon discus planted build / salt QT and frag system.
And hopefully soon corals!!!
Update
Update:
I know it's been a long time and don't even know where to start with. Yes there has been some major setbacks and some cool progress.
I will start with setbacks:
Unfortunately my sump had a minor leak event and thankfully the tsunami guys were extremely helpfully in addressing the issue. I had contacted the original owner of sump in Orlando and he put me in contact with the tsunami support guys. They inspected to make sure sump was installed correctly and leveled. I was amazed the support they provided coming from a second hand purchase as it was never used to begin with.
After a quick repair I was up and running with in a weekend. Sadly I did lose the D.C. Power bricks for my jeboa returns with the leak. Thanks to reefbreeders I had replacements next day. Thank you reefbreeders.
After fish transfer and leak I hit the dreaded stress and ich. Not sure how it got into system as I am a QT advocate and nothing was added with out QT but powder blue came down bad with it. Tried catching it but no luck. He passed quickly with in the week. As much as I am not a fan of hypo I dropped tank salinity and started the dreaded wait for corals and focused on fish care.
At the same time I tried to figure out the events of transfer on what could be causing such stress. Even after 2 weeks hypo fish were still eating well but chasing each other aggression was new as they have been around each other for years. Thankfully buddy came over and pointed out something very obvious but just struck me. They were breathing heavy. At that point I kept testing and testing to see what was off and find stress point with no luck.(obviously ph was low 7.7 do to hypo salinity treatment). I ran carbon tank had cycled for months before that. So fortunately for me I have a great network of reefers nearby
I had started testing water with their test kits and found only one kit to be off (nitrate) still very high but differences in test kits was not by much and I have no corals. After some time and water changes I started getting cloudy water and a bad case of diatom bloom, yet no NH3 or nitrites. So I added 2 UVs one was a unit I had 24 watt and a loaner 48watt and yes it made a difference in water Clarity but did nothing for the stress and now the tangs are not eating.At this point I started thinking getting out (that happens twice a month with this hobby) so I decided to install the RKE gift I got from Mike to control lights and reduce light time to help with diatoms. While installing and calibrating ph I read up on the orp settings and decided to use an older probe and the results with out calbration was shocking sub 100mv. I found that odd and ordered calibration solutions and results were the same. Didn't make much of it and with limited rke knowledge I ruled it as a possible false positive. So on with hypo treatment. Well lucky for me I was able to get a loaner new orp probe and even a salifert oxygen test kit (thanks Bill) and wow results were accurate poor fish were deprived of o2. i run a skimmer, but still odd this was even possible.
So I jumped to the easiest thing I can find to bring that up and dropped my trusty air pump and 24 inch airstone (which was in use in temporary holding tank Ibc 275 gallon since it was skimmer less for 2months) and ran it for over 2 hours. Amazing results on the rke orp side after 2 hours (over 150mv) and oxygen test improved drastically.
So I let it run overnight and by the next day lights coming on I was amazed that the rke was showing over 300mv. What was shocking was fish behavior no sign of ich and ph was at 8 and low salinity couldn't test O2 as kit was no longer available but I eventually ordered my own.
**please note I am not saying this cured my fish from ich and that is highly debated topic.
So after week 4 of hypo and now added oxygen via airstone along with skimmer diatoms are not visible and fish are eating as they use to with out garlci or Selcon. Still nitrates have now hit over 50 and at that point I changed out 100 gallons on top of the 40 biweekly which helped a bunch but not the answer more on this nitrate issue later. So far I have made it to 6 weeks with no signs of ich or diatoms and I started to increase salt at .1024 now.
So moving forward:
I have been a bit focused on a 850 gallon build (not mine) and work. But have been moving forward with getting up and ready for corals. Thanks to Mike I now have a Archon which tested my patience in the worse way but not archons or DA fault
. Special thanks to Matt for helping me thru the reconfiguration and Eric from digital aquatics for the deep dive and technical overview on the archon. There is a great deal of potential in this controller and look forward to future updates. I have also placed an order for a reef octopus regal 300 int which has a potential air draw of 2400 LPH vs my current eshopp 800LPH.
I finally got a hold of a par meter and wow it might be to much light. So I have lowered my reefbreeders white to 30 percent and blue to 70. I had readings well above 400 at bottom of tank. It was pretty uniform and minimal fluctuation.
Upcoming enhancements:
Humidity module for archon
Add more openings and fans to stand.
Add more biomedia (seachem pond matrix for a total of 12 liters).
Get bigger uv.
Add new skimmer
Finish my 120 gallon discus planted build / salt QT and frag system.
And hopefully soon corals!!!
JonezNReef
Member
I just read though your entire build. Your tank is looking amazing and I commend you on all your patients. Cant wait to see some updated pictures of everything
TheAquatect
I Could Stop If I Wanted
Hang in there, you know it's a marathon, not a sprint. how long you have left on hypo?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
how long you have left on hypo?Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Progress
Progress
Thanks. It has been slow progress I hope to finish a few major projects near future. After that I should be good to go on corals.
Progress
Thanks. It has been slow progress I hope to finish a few major projects near future. After that I should be good to go on corals.
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks, I hope so too. I don't think I can deal with anymore set backs.
Thanks
Hang in there! Looks like your "just around the corner" from getting on the winning side
Thanks, I hope so too. I don't think I can deal with anymore set backs.
anbosu
New member
Patience is the best virtue a reefer can have, IMO. You'll have that thing stuffed with SPS inside a year.
Update:
Update:
Aaron, I am trying to get there. So here is an update.
I had to drain tank to replace sump. What a project that was as access to sump is blocked.
Temp storage:
New sump design:
Old sump
New sump fill test for 48 hours:
Start of refill after replacing sump:
After sump replacemen and reworked aquascaping:
Also added the long overdue reef octopus regal 300 int.
Update:
Aaron, I am trying to get there. So here is an update.
I had to drain tank to replace sump. What a project that was as access to sump is blocked.
Temp storage:
New sump design:
Old sump
New sump fill test for 48 hours:
Start of refill after replacing sump:
After sump replacemen and reworked aquascaping:
Also added the long overdue reef octopus regal 300 int.
tigger2577
New member
what was wrong with your first sump?
Repair
Repair
Back in September:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24745703&postcount=140
One seem split causing water to leak into stand blowing power and controller for pumps.
After contacting the original owner of tank and sump to see if he could help me (tank and sump was purchased new but was never used by the original owner in orlando). He had the manufacturer contact me about helping with warrenty. They were very nice and came out to see the issue and repaired it as a temp fix and offered to build me a new one for the inconvenience of water damage to pumps. The only draw back was the build time for custom sumps is 4 to 6 weeks at that time. So I ran tank on repaired sump until new one came in. I was impressed with there support and offer to build me new replacement. The original owner of tank and sump was also very helpful and maybe the reason for the response time.
Repair
Back in September:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=24745703&postcount=140
One seem split causing water to leak into stand blowing power and controller for pumps.
After contacting the original owner of tank and sump to see if he could help me (tank and sump was purchased new but was never used by the original owner in orlando). He had the manufacturer contact me about helping with warrenty. They were very nice and came out to see the issue and repaired it as a temp fix and offered to build me a new one for the inconvenience of water damage to pumps. The only draw back was the build time for custom sumps is 4 to 6 weeks at that time. So I ran tank on repaired sump until new one came in. I was impressed with there support and offer to build me new replacement. The original owner of tank and sump was also very helpful and maybe the reason for the response time.
