Marty's 8' 300g/sump room build. ~750g system

[NeverlosT]

I am gonna watch the vid in a sec, but your info is great.

Two things I wanted to mention before I forgot. #1, I guess you are right, I just read a bit and apparently 18V is not much, just gotta make sure there isn't current in the water. Do you get shocked when you stick your hand in if you have a scratch on your skin? Could just get a grounding probe and be done with it?

Oh and the other thing. I hadn't even thought of it, but my buddy who is a 30 year veteran reefer, SPS bigshot, and all around great aquarist just had a VERY similar thing happen, though luckily he caught it quick. He called me on Tuesday saying, this is weird, my ALK just jumped to 9.5 from 8 and is rising fast. Same deal, his coral just stopped growing for some unknown reason. He stopped his CARX effluent and saved the day and is now tapering back on verrry slowly. I wanted to mention it so that you know that you are not alone, others have experienced the random growth halt and ALK spike. You just had the unfortunate luck of it getting really high before it was caught.

Ok ok im gonna watch your vid now.

 

[Lasse]

For the red planaria. I think it would be very unwise to ad another unknown factor to your aquarium (FWE) before it is back on track. I have had very good experiences with Synchiropus ocellatus (scooter blenny) och red planaria instead of chemicals.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Sallstrom]

I did a mistake once and put a chiller where the condensation(or what it's called) water dripped into the tank. This raised the Al pretty quick(in 26000 litre.. ). Could it come from your AC?

 

[Mshort03]

I am gonna watch the vid in a sec, but your info is great.

Two things I wanted to mention before I forgot. #1, I guess you are right, I just read a bit and apparently 18V is not much, just gotta make sure there isn't current in the water. Do you get shocked when you stick your hand in if you have a scratch on your skin? Could just get a grounding probe and be done with it?

Oh and the other thing. I hadn't even thought of it, but my buddy who is a 30 year veteran reefer, SPS bigshot, and all around great aquarist just had a VERY similar thing happen, though luckily he caught it quick. He called me on Tuesday saying, this is weird, my ALK just jumped to 9.5 from 8 and is rising fast. Same deal, his coral just stopped growing for some unknown reason. He stopped his CARX effluent and saved the day and is now tapering back on verrry slowly. I wanted to mention it so that you know that you are not alone, others have experienced the random growth halt and ALK spike. You just had the unfortunate luck of it getting really high before it was caught.

Ok ok im gonna watch your vid now.

I will say I have thought I got "shocked" before when with a cut.. but then I swear ive felt same thing in frag tank.. have asked others to put their hands in when I feel it and they think I'm crazy as they feel nothing lol. I assumed it was just saltwater in the cuts. As for grounding probe I've read very mixed reviews about those and also thought they weren't good to use on gfci outlets because gfci works by sensing difference in poles vs a breaker sensing amount of amperage.

I talked with another local guy that's got 1000g in his basement as well and last ye as r he lost 15k in livestock.. he was a business and able to write it off but still, devastating loss and "in a good way" his loss, and the one of your buddy makes me feel better because you're right, I'm not alone. Just really really sucks watching pieces you collected disappear quite helplessly. Is what it is..

 

[Mshort03]

For the red planaria. I think it would be very unwise to ad another unknown factor to your aquarium (FWE) before it is back on track. I have had very good experiences with Synchiropus ocellatus (scooter blenny) och red planaria instead of chemicals.

Sincerely Lasse

I had considered this as well, but my theory was that while we've had problems and I'm kinda in this "fix all the problems you've seen over last 5 months" mode and then recover..I figured that doing now would allow me to recover from turbulence and not have to disrupt things again in future. I already have been siphoning out the planaria, prob should add a wrasse in there as well. They are litterally only in the display fuge.

Bads outweigh the goods here or what?

 

[Mshort03]

I did a mistake once and put a chiller where the condensation(or what it's called) water dripped into the tank. This raised the Al pretty quick(in 26000 litre.. ). Could it come from your AC?

My chiller is out in garage by itself so nothing from there, (unless coating on inside? Idk)

As for ac vents in the house, no moisture is sent via the ducts.. that happens up in the air handler and the condensation is drained out the ac drain tube so I dont think that that is the source in my case, but I appreciate the thought to check off the list!

 

[crusso1993]

I will say I have thought I got "shocked" before when with a cut.. but then I swear ive felt same thing in frag tank.. have asked others to put their hands in when I feel it and they think I'm crazy as they feel nothing lol. I assumed it was just saltwater in the cuts. As for grounding probe I've read very mixed reviews about those and also thought they weren't good to use on gfci outlets.. I really dont know.

I talked with another local guy that's got 1000g in his basement as well and last ye as r he lost 15k in livestock.. he was a business and able to write it off but still, devastating loss and "in a good way" his loss, and the one of your buddy makes me feel better because you're right, I'm not alone. Just really really sucks watching pieces you collected disappear quite helplessly. Is what it is..

Thanks for the video. It was hard to see so many frags missing and others struggling.

Just out of curiosity, did you take a measurement of voltage directly in the DT?

Also, here's a simple, short and compelling piece by @Brew12 Hopefully, it will prove to be useful to you.

Using Ground Probes in Aquariums

Why your saltwater aquarium needs a ground probe (or several). The piece is written by an expert electrician.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Lasse]

If I get a punch on my left chin - I do not want another on the right chin at the same moment

IMO - its a question of stress. A new chemical will add to the stress and in worst case 1+1 is not 2 instead it will be 3 or 4.

Adding wrasse or a scooter blenny works without rising the stress levels. IMO Scooter blennys is the best to eat this red flatworms.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Mshort03]

Thanks for the video. It was hard to see so many frags missing and others struggling.

Just out of curiosity, did you take a measurement of voltage directly in the DT?

Also, here's a simple, short and compelling piece by @Brew12 Hopefully, it will prove to be useful to you.

Using Ground Probes in Aquariums

Why your saltwater aquarium needs a ground probe (or several). The piece is written by an expert electrician.

www.reef2reef.com

I will have to read that article later when I get more time.

For measuring, no i took it only in the sump. I'd assume based on the extreme conductive properties of water that it would be the same out in the display, but I'll be testing that theory tonight when I get home.

 

[Mshort03]

If I get a punch on my left chin - I do not want another on the right chin at the same moment

IMO - its a question of stress. A new chemical will add to the stress and in worst case 1+1 is not 2 instead it will be 3 or 4.

Adding wrasse or a scooter blenny works without rising the stress levels. IMO Scooter blennys is the best to eat this red flatworms.

Sincerely Lasse

Yea I was battling back and forth with the fwe but I guess you may be right. I was kinda on a reckless "fix it all right now" thought process when I ordered it so maybe I can take a natural approach for now.. see if the other changes I'm making are making impacts or not without another variable in the mix

 

[NeverlosT]

Watched the vid. I think if things are cooking along and you do a WC once every week or two, monitor N, P, CA, ALK, Mag. Maybe pop a few drops of iodine in there.

I think Lasse has a good point on the FWE. Maybe get the stability down and then worry about the worms.

The GREAT news is that the SPS burnt tips seem to have stopped there, it looked like the dead tips had started to brown and no more super bright (recently) dead skeleton. Which is a super good indicator of the alk swing being the culprit. With stability they will continue to heal.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Mshort03]

Tonight's haul

Really wish I could say things are getting better but they aren't. Some things have shown signs of stopping atleast but some others havent, and a few have RTN over night 2 days ago. I did a water change today and have done 3 total this week (~150gallons) and got reactor of cuprisorb running.

Tonight I rearranged a few of the rocks to help with flow and better coral placement. Also I wanted to get rid of the branch rock pointing at front of tank, it was tanking away from the depth which is a big visual point that I like. The changes are subtle, but impactful I feel. I also moved some of the hammers so they weren't getting blasted with one sided flow so much

I only did the right side for today. Tomorrow I'm finishing up stuff in sump room from rebuild and I'll also do the left side of rocks..have a few small changes I want to do over there too.

Side thoughts: I'm seriously considering putting this system back on 2 part dosing. It's so much easier and in my experience so far it's way more hands off. Frag system is doing great and I havent touched it since setting up basically. Display system doing bad and problems and adjusting with reactor..just seems like so many moving pieces. I under stand that in long run it's supposed to be cheaper but I'm debating if that's worth it. A 8 gallon kit of esv is 90 bucks. At my current dose I'd guess that to last me in the 5 month range per kit. I think I'd only have a problem with cost if it got to be like 1 kit per month.. What do you guys thing about going back to 2 part at some point?

 

[NeverlosT]

Personally I do not think the alk/CA/Mag supplementing method is the issue, but if you are much more comfortable with dosing then I would say run with it. There will be a long time, at least a couple of years I'd guess before the tank will be so grown in that a CARX would be a must to avoid just dumping in 2-part. So I don't see a huge drawback to switching back. Dont sell you CARX though, you'll be bummed you did later (or maybe I'm just a hoarder!)

Water changes every couple of weeks/month and it will turn around. I went through a tough spot with my tank a couple years ago. Honestly just getting mad and letting it mature through it was the only thing that helped.

Good work on the scape!

 

[APC]

Personally - I do weekly 10% changes on my 300G system and I dose 2 part. I have a mix of LPS, SPS, Softies - I keep it simple and it seems to work fine (knock on wood I have not had any major losses in years). With the weekly changes, I barley have to dose anything. I am not saying that is the answer for you - but +1 on going back to basics and keeping it as simple as possible.

 

[Mshort03]

Personally - I do weekly 10% changes on my 300G system and I dose 2 part. I have a mix of LPS, SPS, Softies - I keep it simple and it seems to work fine (knock on wood I have not had any major losses in years). With the weekly changes, I barley have to dose anything. I am not saying that is the answer for you - but +1 on going back to basics and keeping it as simple as possible.

I agree with being simple.. I got too much going on to have too many moving pieces. The reactor has so much going on. My 90g had way more coral than I'm left with now and it was at 80ml per part per day. I figure it may be easier to just have a simple 2 part setup and know exactly how much is going in and it would be a veryyyy long time before the cost of 2 part started being an issue for me. I'm 60/40 on switching back but I think it will be a month or so before I make final decision.

 

[Mshort03]

Ohh, nice note is the ocean revives have arrived for the frag tank, I will be getting these installed later today as well

 

[crusso1993]

My dude... I noticed you were pulling out many of the corals that looked dead. FWIW - I would not pull them so quickly. I have seen, time and time again, corals that looked like they were gone make remarkable comebacks. Just something to chew on... beside those RIBS which I think you're about due to make again! Right @Dyanna Diaz ?

Nice to see the OR's come in. Are they the good 'ol "T247s"?

 

[Mshort03]

My dude... I noticed you were pulling out many of the corals that looked dead. FWIW - I would not pull them so quickly. I have seen, time and time again, corals that looked like they were gone make remarkable comebacks. Just something to chew on... beside those RIBS which I think you're about due to make again! Right @Dyanna Diaz ?

Nice to see the OR's come in. Are they the good 'ol "T247s"?

I got the arctic t247-b..I now own 12 of these lights haha. Here is a few pics of them installed and a couple shots of frag tank

Still need to get the 40b organized and set with racks.

I got the rodi unit mounted to it's new home

Also got the new water barrels. 105g and 100g. Had to cut 3 inches off the fresh water container to get it to fit under the 125..still holds 100g so good enough for my purposes

Tomorrow I will get them installed and try to wrap up the rest of the things in here so I can finally call it "done"

Funny you mention the ribs.. I just told dyanna yesterday we should make them this weekend lol

 

[Mshort03]

Got the new water jugs installed. Super happy with them. Having everything in one room now is going to be so nice..

Ill be placing a light barrier between the sump and container to prevent algae growth. The taller one is for fresh water so I dont really need to get in top of it. Shorter one for salt so I have room to work in it. The pump will be submerged inside the tote so that there wont be any more space taken up with external plumbing. I'll get these plumbed in this weekend after I do my last big water change with the station outside the room.

 

[Mshort03]

Over the past 2 week I've done about 400g of water changes with a big 150g change at my last one. The tank seems to be at a point where its stabilizing out.. I havent seen any more death in the past week or so, lots of damaged pieces but they all seem to have atleast stopped getting worse. Hopefully were on the road to recovery.
I moved some rock from the 90g waterchange tank down into the sump where the chaeto was.. I needed to gain volume back in the 90 and figured some rock in a higher flow area would be good..

I also moved some of the rock work around in display to make it more open. I wanted to gain more of the front to back depth perspective so i took out all the branch rock that was pointing forward. I also removed a large arch on left side and opened it up to be a kind of lagoon and much more open. The tank looks way bigger and deeper now and I'm happy with the changes. The flow has also gotten way better, the flow from the mp60s isn't getting broken up so early anymore so I can get a nice long flowing current across tank. Corals deff seem to like it better..
Here's a few pics of display

Got the new water station plumbed up too. No more having to stand on the step ladder to turn valves..the entire process is all within arms reach standing right in front of it

With the water station out of the garage I was able to move the chiller closer to the wall and gain a ton of extra storage for garage stuff. This is one of the biggest plus to this redesign.

There is a fan blowing on it to increase air flow should it ever kick on. Luckily this still is just a safety net for me, hasn't came on since we replaced the HVAC.

I'll leave with a couple pics of my nems.. I'm up to 13 now this cube will be upgraded to a 60 cube in about a week or so..I'll post pics of that when it happens.