Flippers reef 125 gallon

User1 · Sep 28, 2019

Fudsey said:
My wife saw a picture of a leopard wrasse that MD posted a couple days ago and said we should get one.....

Now to find a healthy one that's eating....

One is a lonely number...I'm thinking THREE!

Flippers4pups · Sep 28, 2019

My blue star leopard came from a LFS that had taken them in on a tank take down. It was already eating and adapted to a tank. I was very fortunate.

RichtheReefer21 · Sep 28, 2019

Always a relief when a new addition just glides in to the reef. Sweet.

Flippers4pups · Sep 28, 2019

I’m a big advocate for quarantine/observation/Hospital tanks. Every reefer should have one!

Flippers4pups · Sep 29, 2019

Well I did something I hadn't done before ever, adjusted my freshly made saltwater alkalinity.

I had made up some saltwater Friday and decided to test it's alkalinity. It was at 11dkh. My DT is at 9.3. last night I tested it again and it rose to 14 dkh. Having some muriatic acid on hand, I dosed 1.2 ml of acid for each point of dkh to drop. So I started out with 4 ml of acid, allowed to mix and tested it. It came out at 10.3 dkh. Close but not there yet. Added another 1ml of acid and tested it. Came out at 9.3 dkh! Success! But dropping alkalinity with acid comes a price, PH. It was at 7!

So I added a air stone on a air pump to the saltwater over night. Bingo! This morning it was at 7.8!

Did the water change and everything in the DT looks great!

I'll be doing this from now on!

mta_morrow · Sep 29, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Well I did something I hadn't done before ever, adjusted my freshly made saltwater alkalinity.

I had made up some saltwater Friday and decided to test it's alkalinity. It was at 11dkh. My DT is at 9.3. last night I tested it again and it rose to 14 dkh. Having some muriatic acid on hand, I dosed 1.2 ml of acid for each point of dkh to drop. So I started out with 4 ml of acid, allowed to mix and tested it. It came out at 10.3 dkh. Close but not there yet. Added another 1ml of acid and tested it. Came out at 9.3 dkh! Success! But dropping alkalinity with acid comes a price, PH. It was at 7!

So I added a air stone on a air pump to the saltwater over night. Bingo! This morning it was at 7.8!

Did the water change and everything in the DT looks great!

I'll be doing this from now on!

That’s a lot of work! I got tired just reading about it!

Flippers4pups · Sep 29, 2019

mta_morrow said:
That’s a lot of work! I got tired just reading about it!

I hear you Mike! A lot to do just to adjust alkalinity and maybe just a touch of OCD I presume.

Fudsey · Sep 29, 2019

Which salt, IO?

Flippers4pups · Sep 29, 2019

Fudsey said:
Which salt, IO?

Yep.

saltyhog · Oct 2, 2019

Flippers4pups said:
Yep.

Yep, that's the only reason I switched from it. Got an alkalinity spike every water change.

Flippers4pups · Oct 5, 2019

Okay it's been awhile since I updated. I like a lot of people are busy with family friends and work.

The focus as of late has been on my salt mix. The box of IO I bought to do water changes after the fritz issues had some very hard clumps in it. It would precipitate a little bit of calcium at the bottom of the mixing station. As I have stated before, testing its alkalinity show to be very high.

Not trusting this I went out today and bought a brand new bucket of IO. It's completely powder inside as it should be. That's a good sign.

So I clean the mixing station barrels out. Drained my ATO top off reservoir and cleaned it with some vinegar water. I had never cleaned it since I had set it up and I had a funky almost moldy smell to it.

With all that done and dried I filled up the mixing barrel with 20 gallons and filled up the ATO reservoir with freshwater. Hopefully my salt issues are now resolved.

Now on to the bacterial Bloom that I'm still fighting in the display tank. With a bad bulb ship to me for my UV sterilizer and questioning whether or not the unit may have a bad ballast, I decided to buy a brand new UV sterilizer. A aqua UV unit and it should be here Monday. No matter what I do I cannot stop this bacterial bloom. hopefully this new unit will clarify the water very quickly.

That's all the update I have for now. Stay tuned.

saltyhog · Oct 5, 2019

Hang in there Don! At least bacterial blooms are not too hard on the tank as long as you're able to maintain good O2 levels. Good skimming, limiting organics (stop carbon dosing if doing it) patience and a well functioning UV are all I can think of. You will like that Aqua UV, I love mine and have it semi-permanently set up.

Flippers4pups · Oct 5, 2019

saltyhog said:
Hang in there Don! At least bacterial blooms are not too hard on the tank as long as you're able to maintain good O2 levels. Good skimming, limiting organics (stop carbon dosing if doing it) patience and a well functioning UV are all I can think of. You will like that Aqua UV, I love mine and have it semi-permanently set up.

No carbon dosing here. Skimming wet. Going to do that 20 gallon water change and just wait for the UV to show.

Yes the Aqua UV was one I should have went with when I got the Danner. All in all it worked well, but I should have read all the reviews before buying it. Most Danner units ballast craps out after a year. $75 for the ballast and $50 for the bulb equals a brand new Aqua UV unit. All the reviews on them are very good and I'm only using it to clarify the water column only. Can't wait to get it installed!

All work done in the fish room down stairs, even cleaned the skimmer. Now to sit in my recliner and enjoy some fall flavor:

reefwiser · Oct 5, 2019

Do it nice an slow getting in a hurry never helps.

Fudsey · Oct 5, 2019

Where did you get the Aqua UV? And what size did you get?

RichtheReefer21 · Oct 5, 2019

Theres enough headaches in this hobby, it's a shame we have to walk on eggshells because we cant trust QC of some of the biggest names in the game.

Hope you get it figured out and things settle back out for ya... hang tough.

[HASH=7049]#reefinainteasy[/HASH]

Flippers4pups · Oct 5, 2019

Fudsey said:
Where did you get the Aqua UV? And what size did you get?

Aquacave. 15watt.

Flippers4pups · Oct 6, 2019

Water change done. Shipment of the UV shows it's now at the local USPS office. Thank God! Maybe today, most likely tommorow!

More I think about the salt issues, the more I think I'll be buying it from Petco. They price match, I can open the bucket in store and inspect it for hardness and they always have some in store. Can't say that about my LFS's. I could buy from them if they have it, but they are higher priced. If they will price match, then maybe.

Just don't ever think I'll change salt brands again. IO has been good to me all these years.

Blutspitze · Oct 7, 2019

Oof; rough news on the salt, but hopefully your cleaning and change-rechange will fix things. Plus I'll cross fingers that the new UV unit actually arrives on time for you. Is the other bulb still on the way? What's the plan for the other unit?

Flippers4pups · Oct 7, 2019

Blutspitze said:
Oof; rough news on the salt, but hopefully your cleaning and change-rechange will fix things. Plus I'll cross fingers that the new UV unit actually arrives on time for you. Is the other bulb still on the way? What's the plan for the other unit?

The Danner pondmaster UV is put away. I don't plan on messing with it now that the Aqua UV is on its way.

Salt issues can be a bad batch from improper mixing of elements or moisture or heat when still in a dry state.

Don't use "bricked" or "clumped" or "wet" salt mixes. Inspect boxes or buckets before leaving LFS for these conditions. Get a refund.