Pickupman66's 180 gal Glass box - Update for July 2013

Good deal triple MOM. lets talk around Christmas.

NOw to give an update on my disaster I call a reef tank.

1. cal is down to 450 now. Finally falling. Alk is 7.3, Phos is .04, nitrates were at 25. other stuff was good and I did a 50 gallon water change. SO, tank is on the right track.. I hope.
2. I cleaned my ATS and it was geting some good Hairy growth. YAY.
3. put my UV back online with two brand new bulbs.

4. I had to completely hack up my Acro Cerealis. it is now in about 10 nappy looking frags. cut the burnt tips off and then hacked them up because of the RTN from the encrustation up. My tank looks AWFUL. I also cut the tips of a few other acros. my monti cap is gone completely. I have a dead nub in my pink poci, and my green branching one is completely gone.

seeing the massive areas of dead encrustation is dreadfully painful.

all of my SPS look dreadful. some worse than others. Lost my Chalice. all Softies and LPS look good. nice large polyp extension. Zoas look fantastic.

the Frags I put in my Frag system of my Purple Slimer look fantastic. NO ISSUES. the large piece in my display on the frag rack... yea its losing the tips.

I dont freaking get it. its like there is some sort of SPS disease going thru my tank. yes, the nitrates are a bit high, but not extreme I dont think.

I have checked for stray voltage.. NONE. I have upped the time my lights have gone full strength.

for one of the first times, i am at a complete LOSS in my reef. Im so depressed as it was JUST LOOKING FANTASTIC.

 

Sucks to hear! 25 nitrates is pretty high for SPS. My nitrates are sitting around 40-50 and I'm losing LPS. Turned my skimmer way up so Im not getting dry skim hopefully that will help.

 

Just a thought. 25 ppm of nitrates is high for SPS but the question is has it been 25 for a long while or was there a sudden rise. I had done and a couple reefers around me were running between 5-10 ppm of nitrate with SPS and had some success. That's also because the LPS and softies didn't open all the way and the colors didn't look great. But keeping the trates at those numbers consistently was the key. My acros especially my montiporas grew crazy.

As I said just an idea. But as also known, what may work in my tank may not work in others tank.

 

Yea. I think you are likely right. it has been elevated for a while. I had a starfish and a Goby go missing on me about a month ago.. and I reckon that is when things really wend downhill. Ill have to get to work on getting that down to more respectable levels. I think the ATS I have will help but so will a few big water changes.

it always helps to have someone else tell you.

 

Dang.. Month and a Half. im such a Blog Looser.

UPDATE!!! Short, simple and mixed.

1. Nitrates, Phosphates are UNDER CONTROL. the ATS I made seems to be doing its job. getting some Super nice dark green growth. getting thicker each week. NO VISIBLE algae in the DT expect what grows on the glass. WOO HOO.

2. Cyano is Back with a vengence. GAWD I hate that stuff. Constantly all over my sand and some rocks. Funny, only concentrated on one END of the tank. LOL.. Did a 3 day Lights out and it was gone all day yesterday. Lets see if it stays that way. I dosed Bacteria too so hope that helps.

3. FRAG GROW SYSTEM. So, On Christmas eve I went to a buddy's house and picked up a 23x23x17 home made frag tank. In it was a mean tomato clown and a pair of PJ cardinals. Cards went in my DT to make 17 mouths to feed and the Clown went in the sump temporarily. on New years eve, my frag system was then upgraded from a stand alone 10g tank to this nice 40 gallon system. it was electronically connected to the DT but that was it. NICE HUH?



well, Friday Night it failed. Catastropically. I was checking the DT and turning the lights off (was in blackout but I turned them on to feed) and noticed something odd underneath the Frag tank. Strange bubble. looked at the bottom edge.. WATER GUSHING FROM THE SEAM. $%^&*$%^& $%^&* (*&^%$ Its on the wood floors!!!! Dash to the garage for the pump and hose, tell the Wife "CODE RED"! (funny she had commented earlier that day that she was tired of the tank and me messing with it CONSTANTLY lately. would not mind if it were gone) Pumped all the water out of the window and used all our beach towels to clean up my mess. Wife had to help hold the pump. Clown and Frags all went into the sump. tank on the front porch... AAAGGGHHHH

now what am I going to do. I built this nice stand to fit it. it was AWESOME. i had plans to plumb it in to the DT even. well that is all down the drain (or front yard at least)

During the sermon sunday morning, i came up with a NOVEL idea.... use the pair of empty 10g tanks I had sitting around side by side. connect them together then to the Sump. Run the plumbing all under my workbench and behind the 55g top off container. Hmmm.. it just might work.

here is what we came up with Each tank is a seperate entity. it has its own PVC overflow (3/4") and its own supply (3/4") each connected to a common feed and return. the main return line is 1" and the supply is 3/4. it is connected to the old 1" gate valve from my old skimmer at the sump. BONUS!!! each tank gets approx 50GPH from the DT. this is plenty IMO and their flow is supplemented with powerheads. I was able to use my NICE reef Radiance light over them too. SWEEEEEET. all in all the only stuff I needed to buy was 3 pieces of 1" pvc, 2 pieces of 3/4 and 30 elbows.




SO, there you go. Frags moved in. Tanks stay at temperature, and all is good.

 

and the Bonus of this setup is that I can completely ISOLATE the tank on the left from the rest of the system making it a great QT setup. or I coud turn one into a FUGE if I so wanted to.

 

wow! You are a great example of persistence and passion pay off! I also thought it was interesting that you're brainstorming reef solutions during church

 

You came up with a great idea during a sermon. I can see judgment day now. good, good, good, wait, you was thinking about how to put up a frag tank during church? BAD BAD BAD.

 

Errrrr... god inspired the idea at his house.


Lol... the preacher was pulpit pounding and my mind drifted.

 

Nice Save, nice DIY! You know I'm all about DIY stuff