m.kristoff
Well-Known Member
Warning this is a rambling post!
I failed! After 28 months, I could never get my tank to balance and mature. Some due in part to my lack of knowledge and some due equipment but mostly my lack of understanding balance and change!
When I started the tank, it did not have an ugly stage even after 5 months. Started with Dry rock and Radions. I figured the cleanup crew was keeping everything in check and started adding coral to the tank. My NO3 was staying on the low side. So I added more fish and fed a little bit more. Still couldn't maintain a solid level of NO3 which hovered just above 0. Same with PO4. It went downhill from there!
Mistake number 1. I was using old school logic of having a big skimmer. I was skimming everything down to 0. I didn't realize it at the time.
Mistake number 2. I wasn't a fan of how the Radions looked so I got a ATI Stratton and flanked it with 2 Kessel's. I didn't really think about Par running them at 50%. All I did was provide way too much light!
Mistake number 3. I relied on too much Tech! I have had just about all the AutoTester's. My Mastertronic required constant tinkering, but I could get it testing pretty well. I would get weird readings, and it was time to tinker with it again. I should not have trusted it as my only source of Info when it came to water quality. My alk, calcium and mag were at steady levels. My PO4 and NO3 remained near or at 0. The Mastertronic was reading 0 no3 and 0 po4. My Hannas were reading just above 0. The tank broke out with hair algae after I added the lights, so I figured it was the reason why I had 0 nutrients. I still didn't connect it was probably from too much light
Mistake number 4. Added a clearwater scrubber to redirect the growth of the HA to a more desirable place. I got as much HA out of the tank that I could and fired up the scrubber. It grew HA no problem! All that did was help keep the nutrients at 0. Now I was going HA in the scrubber and the Tank!
Mistake number 5. Started Dosing NO3 and PO4. the logic was to keep my nutrients above 0 to prevent dinos. I got dinos anyway and all it did was feed the HA. The tank is about 20 months, and it was only getting worse.
Mistake number 6. I wasn't wining no matter what I was doing and close to hitting the 2-year mark. I Made a drastic move. Removed all the cycled rock and dino covered substrate. I put the rock in a remote tank that was attached to the system with no light to maintain the bio. Picked up some CarbSea Liferock and went bare bottom. Also changed my lights again! Visited a successful reefer that was using orpheks and decided to mimic what he was doing. My tank was rid of all the HA and Dino. With the turf scrubber running and the old rock in the dark, I was hoping that my changes would reboot the tank but leave a good level of biology in place.
Mistake Number 7. Added a few cheap tester SPS since it seemed my LPS was doing ok. SPS looked good for a few days then crashed. Sent off an ICP and found Tin in the water. Found a Neptune Optical sensor that rusted. Tank still looked pretty good, and numbers were holding according to my Mastertronic. Added more cheap SPS but they only lasted a short time.
Summery: Started getting bits of HA and cyno again. Figured it was from the new rock cycling. I was hoping that the old rock was maintaining the bio to make the cycle quick or none at all. My new oprhek lights were set at 50%. Got a Par meter and was getting about 450 par at the top 200ish at the bottom. More PAR more better! I didn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out that it was just feeding the HA. Tank was looking pretty good. At the 28th month, my PO4 and NO3 were at 0 and got Dino again! That was it, I broke the tank down and sold it off.
While all of this was going on, we had a once in a lifetime storm that flooded my basement and that is where the tank was. The next Day My mother was diagnosed with Cancer and was put in hospice the next day. I had a lot going on while battling this tank and probably could have made better decisions.
I have had about 6 months with no tank and time to look back at everything that I did. Determine what worked and didn't work.
So I am starting over.
Picked up a planet Aquarium 120 gallon.
For lighting, I will be using a Kessil / sky combo. Or use the Kessils as the primary with reefbrites or blades- To be determined. whatever light combo I go with, they will be ran at low percentage and ramped up slowly as the tank establishes itself. I think too much light was a lot of the problem.
Going with a smaller skimmer. I picked up a Reef Octo Elite 150. Will be able to dial it down and hopefully prevent over skimming the nutrients down to 0.
The biggest change is that I am going with live rock. I got 60 pounds from KP aquatics 2 weeks ago. It is currently sitting in a rubbermaid sump with a skimmer and I'm lighting it with a single Kessil at 30% with all blue for about 4 hours to help maintain the life that came on the rock. I am taking my time setting up the DT so the rock will be in the sump for several months. I plan to run the sump like it's a DT.
Might be relevant but I have seen several post on R2R and Reefbum put out a video about how the CarbSea liferock causing some of the problems that could have contributed to my issues. part of the reason I went with live rock.
I think starting the new tank with well cured live rock and a slow ramp up of the lights will set me up for success. I am also going to keep things simple this time.
This will be my build thread so I can keep track of this build and remind myself why the last one crashed!
I failed! After 28 months, I could never get my tank to balance and mature. Some due in part to my lack of knowledge and some due equipment but mostly my lack of understanding balance and change!
When I started the tank, it did not have an ugly stage even after 5 months. Started with Dry rock and Radions. I figured the cleanup crew was keeping everything in check and started adding coral to the tank. My NO3 was staying on the low side. So I added more fish and fed a little bit more. Still couldn't maintain a solid level of NO3 which hovered just above 0. Same with PO4. It went downhill from there!
Mistake number 1. I was using old school logic of having a big skimmer. I was skimming everything down to 0. I didn't realize it at the time.
Mistake number 2. I wasn't a fan of how the Radions looked so I got a ATI Stratton and flanked it with 2 Kessel's. I didn't really think about Par running them at 50%. All I did was provide way too much light!
Mistake number 3. I relied on too much Tech! I have had just about all the AutoTester's. My Mastertronic required constant tinkering, but I could get it testing pretty well. I would get weird readings, and it was time to tinker with it again. I should not have trusted it as my only source of Info when it came to water quality. My alk, calcium and mag were at steady levels. My PO4 and NO3 remained near or at 0. The Mastertronic was reading 0 no3 and 0 po4. My Hannas were reading just above 0. The tank broke out with hair algae after I added the lights, so I figured it was the reason why I had 0 nutrients. I still didn't connect it was probably from too much light
Mistake number 4. Added a clearwater scrubber to redirect the growth of the HA to a more desirable place. I got as much HA out of the tank that I could and fired up the scrubber. It grew HA no problem! All that did was help keep the nutrients at 0. Now I was going HA in the scrubber and the Tank!
Mistake number 5. Started Dosing NO3 and PO4. the logic was to keep my nutrients above 0 to prevent dinos. I got dinos anyway and all it did was feed the HA. The tank is about 20 months, and it was only getting worse.
Mistake number 6. I wasn't wining no matter what I was doing and close to hitting the 2-year mark. I Made a drastic move. Removed all the cycled rock and dino covered substrate. I put the rock in a remote tank that was attached to the system with no light to maintain the bio. Picked up some CarbSea Liferock and went bare bottom. Also changed my lights again! Visited a successful reefer that was using orpheks and decided to mimic what he was doing. My tank was rid of all the HA and Dino. With the turf scrubber running and the old rock in the dark, I was hoping that my changes would reboot the tank but leave a good level of biology in place.
Mistake Number 7. Added a few cheap tester SPS since it seemed my LPS was doing ok. SPS looked good for a few days then crashed. Sent off an ICP and found Tin in the water. Found a Neptune Optical sensor that rusted. Tank still looked pretty good, and numbers were holding according to my Mastertronic. Added more cheap SPS but they only lasted a short time.
Summery: Started getting bits of HA and cyno again. Figured it was from the new rock cycling. I was hoping that the old rock was maintaining the bio to make the cycle quick or none at all. My new oprhek lights were set at 50%. Got a Par meter and was getting about 450 par at the top 200ish at the bottom. More PAR more better! I didn't put 2 and 2 together to figure out that it was just feeding the HA. Tank was looking pretty good. At the 28th month, my PO4 and NO3 were at 0 and got Dino again! That was it, I broke the tank down and sold it off.
While all of this was going on, we had a once in a lifetime storm that flooded my basement and that is where the tank was. The next Day My mother was diagnosed with Cancer and was put in hospice the next day. I had a lot going on while battling this tank and probably could have made better decisions.
I have had about 6 months with no tank and time to look back at everything that I did. Determine what worked and didn't work.
So I am starting over.
Picked up a planet Aquarium 120 gallon.
For lighting, I will be using a Kessil / sky combo. Or use the Kessils as the primary with reefbrites or blades- To be determined. whatever light combo I go with, they will be ran at low percentage and ramped up slowly as the tank establishes itself. I think too much light was a lot of the problem.
Going with a smaller skimmer. I picked up a Reef Octo Elite 150. Will be able to dial it down and hopefully prevent over skimming the nutrients down to 0.
The biggest change is that I am going with live rock. I got 60 pounds from KP aquatics 2 weeks ago. It is currently sitting in a rubbermaid sump with a skimmer and I'm lighting it with a single Kessil at 30% with all blue for about 4 hours to help maintain the life that came on the rock. I am taking my time setting up the DT so the rock will be in the sump for several months. I plan to run the sump like it's a DT.
Might be relevant but I have seen several post on R2R and Reefbum put out a video about how the CarbSea liferock causing some of the problems that could have contributed to my issues. part of the reason I went with live rock.
I think starting the new tank with well cured live rock and a slow ramp up of the lights will set me up for success. I am also going to keep things simple this time.
This will be my build thread so I can keep track of this build and remind myself why the last one crashed!
