Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

Start it with " we're all going to be a little embarrassed by this but..."

Nope, it started with "Look Garcia, I'm not pointing anybody out specifically but, everyone please..."

 

[tbrown]

I wonder if he realized I was talking to him...

 

[Mschmidt]

Nope, it started with "Look Garcia, I'm not pointing anybody out specifically but, everyone please..."

You are in AZ so Garcia probably doesn't eliminate as many as it would out here.

 

[tbrown]

You are in AZ so Garcia probably doesn't eliminate as many as it would out here.

It's funny because his twin brother works for us as well...

 

[Mschmidt]

It's funny because his twin brother works for us as well...

Of course he does.

 

[Fishy888]

So today I got a Mexican turbo snail. It’s shell is at least 50% encrusted with lavender and purple coralline. It’s also got a decent amount of spirorbid worms.

The corals are all doing pretty well today. The fish are doing great too. All my inverts are looking good too. I got to see one of my peppermint shrimp out yesterday afternoon.

I’m happy to say my Hanna checker will be here Monday instead of Tuesday. I’ll know where I stand for phosphate levels soon enough.

In mid October give or take I started dosing LaCl because I went to test phosphates and got a reading of 1.0 ppm using Salifert. In the 75 gallon tank from last year I started with dry rock. I ended up with dinos as everyone who’s read through this thread knows. I battled the Dino’s for about 8 months altogether. After moving everything to the 45 and having the dinos come back, I was going to sell everything. I was getting lowball offers and my wife encouraged me to keep trying so I did. At about that time a local reefer came to my rescue. She sold me the two rocks with the xenia colonies on them for $10 a piece and gave me a bunch of chaeto. That knocked out the dinos. I started feeding the tank quite a bit for having just two clownfish. After about a month of that I tried to cut back. Bad move, The dinos started coming back though not nearly as badly. Then I fed heavily for another month and it would happen again. After several months of this I got the Salifert test. I was somewhat surprised at the 1.0 ppm reading for phosphates but not completely. Still I had hardly any nuisance algae. I knew nitrates were my problem. After researching the possibilities I tried dosing nitrates aka stump remover. My chaeto really started growing. Then cyano really started growing, and what was likely lyngbya or however that’s spelled. I got desperate and decided to dose phosphate-e, something I promised myself I wouldn’t do. The ratio of nitrates to phosphates was way out of whack though. Even after exporting tons of algae I wasn’t even moving the needle on phosphates. At that point I knew what culprits caused my phosphate issues so I decided to go with the LaCl. Now the lyngbya is almost completely gone. I have plenty of cyano though and I still get green micro algae on the glass and rocks. Before I started the dosing the micro algae would grow from completely clean glass to completely green in 24 hours or less. Sometimes in 12 to 18 hours. Now it’s once every 2 to 3 days.

 

[tbrown]

So today I got a Mexican turbo snail. It’s shell is at least 50% encrusted with lavender and purple coralline. It’s also got a decent amount of spirorbid worms.

The corals are all doing pretty well today. The fish are doing great too. All my inverts are looking good too. I got to see one of my peppermint shrimp out yesterday afternoon.

I’m happy to say my Hanna checker will be here Monday instead of Tuesday. I’ll know where I stand for phosphate levels soon enough.

In mid October give or take I started dosing LaCl because I went to test phosphates and got a reading of 1.0 ppm using Salifert. In the 75 gallon tank from last year I started with dry rock. I ended up with dinos as everyone who’s read through this thread knows. I battled the Dino’s for about 8 months altogether. After moving everything to the 45 and having the dinos come back, I was going to sell everything. I was getting lowball offers and my wife encouraged me to keep trying so I did. At about that time a local reefer came to my rescue. She sold me the two rocks with the xenia colonies on them for $10 a piece and gave me a bunch of chaeto. That knocked out the dinos. I started feeding the tank quite a bit for having just two clownfish. After about a month of that I tried to cut back. Bad move, The dinos started coming back though not nearly as badly. Then I fed heavily for another month and it would happen again. After several months of this I got the Salifert test. I was somewhat surprised at the 1.0 ppm reading for phosphates but not completely. Still I had hardly any nuisance algae. I knew nitrates were my problem. After researching the possibilities I tried dosing nitrates aka stump remover. My chaeto really started growing. Then cyano really started growing, and what was likely lyngbya or however that’s spelled. I got desperate and decided to dose phosphate-e, something I promised myself I wouldn’t do. The ratio of nitrates to phosphates was way out of whack though. Even after exporting tons of algae I wasn’t even moving the needle on phosphates. At that point I knew what culprits caused my phosphate issues so I decided to go with the LaCl. Now the lyngbya is almost completely gone. I have plenty of cyano though and I still get green micro algae on the glass and rocks. Before I started the dosing the micro algae would grow from completely clean glass to completely green in 24 hours or less. Sometimes in 12 to 18 hours. Now it’s once every 2 to 3 days.

I dosed stump remover a couple of times then I realized my stupid test kit was bad. I was showing really low to almost no NO3 and dosed until I was showing about a 10. Got my Hanna check and I was reading a 60!

 

[Fishy888]

Three days have passed since I last cleaned the glass and the green micro algae hasn’t grown tons since then. I would say there’s less growth than there’s been in a while. I haven’t dosed any LaCl in close to two weeks now. I’ve been feeding quite a bit in fact lately. Both pellets and frozen food are fed each day. I also target feed my duncans at least once a week. I fed them twice in two days now.

I got this shortly after all four polyps ate that could eat. There’s a fifth but it’s too small to be target fed. For that matter it’s not much more than a bud with some tiny tentacles starting to form.

This is the first pic I’ve taken where at least portions of all five polyps can be seen. The fifth is to the left of the two not-so-baby-anymore polyps.

Please pardon the stuff on the glass. I need to get a scraper for the glass soon.

I hope to get my sump cleaned up a bit today. There’s a decent amount of cyano near the pump and a few other places. My chaeto needs to get turned over too.

Tomorrow my Hanna checker gets here. Once I get the results I’ll monitor trends closely because I’ll probably use small amounts of phosphate-e (LaCl) to control phosphates.

Since I’m getting the circulation pump in January I’ll have to wait before I get the next Hanna checkers. I’ll likely get the NO3 checker first. Second will be ALK, third will be CAL, Fourth will be MAG, and last will be CU. I’ll also have to get extra reagents since they only supply 10 packets with each checker. CU is the only one I won’t buy extra reagents for since that’s not something I’ll use often.

 

[Fishy888]

One last thing. @Lost in the Sauce and @Mschmidt I’m going to make it easier to navigate my build thread much like you have done in yours. I’ll edit the first post to make quick links to various topics such as the different tanks this reef has been in, equipment upgrades and their effects, any experiments I conduct, and any other important topics.

I’m still reading your threads and I have a ways to go yet but I’m getting there. I’m already learning a bunch from you. Thank you.

 

[Mschmidt]

One last thing. @Lost in the Sauce and @Mschmidt I’m going to make it easier to navigate my build thread much like you have done in yours. I’ll edit the first post to make quick links to various topics such as the different tanks this reef has been in, equipment upgrades and their effects, any experiments I conduct, and any other important topics.

I’m still reading your threads and I have a ways to go yet but I’m getting there. I’m already learning a bunch from you. Thank you.

Thanks for the support! I learn from my errors, so if you can learn from me, I glad I helped.
I should also add to the title of mine. "or how I learned to stop worrying and love the algae".

 

[tbrown]

Three days have passed since I last cleaned the glass and the green micro algae hasn’t grown tons since then. I would say there’s less growth than there’s been in a while. I haven’t dosed any LaCl in close to two weeks now. I’ve been feeding quite a bit in fact lately. Both pellets and frozen food are fed each day. I also target feed my duncans at least once a week. I fed them twice in two days now.

I got this shortly after all four polyps ate that could eat. There’s a fifth but it’s too small to be target fed. For that matter it’s not much more than a bud with some tiny tentacles starting to form.

This is the first pic I’ve taken where at least portions of all five polyps can be seen. The fifth is to the left of the two not-so-baby-anymore polyps.

Please pardon the stuff on the glass. I need to get a scraper for the glass soon.

I hope to get my sump cleaned up a bit today. There’s a decent amount of cyano near the pump and a few other places. My chaeto needs to get turned over too.

Tomorrow my Hanna checker gets here. Once I get the results I’ll monitor trends closely because I’ll probably use small amounts of phosphate-e (LaCl) to control phosphates.

Since I’m getting the circulation pump in January I’ll have to wait before I get the next Hanna checkers. I’ll likely get the NO3 checker first. Second will be ALK, third will be CAL, Fourth will be MAG, and last will be CU. I’ll also have to get extra reagents since they only supply 10 packets with each checker. CU is the only one I won’t buy extra reagents for since that’s not something I’ll use often.

Instead of a scraper I prefer the sponges on sticks for most cleaning. The green stuff can be a little harder than the dusty junk but it has a lower likelihood of scratching the glass if it works. I do have a scraper for those hard to scrub places that refuse to be sponge cleaned (or the edges under the sand bed some.

 

[Fishy888]

Instead of a scraper I prefer the sponges on sticks for most cleaning. The green stuff can be a little harder than the dusty junk but it has a lower likelihood of scratching the glass if it works. I do have a scraper for those hard to scrub places that refuse to be sponge cleaned (or the edges under the sand bed some.

I have a sponge in a stick. It’s not to be confused with the jalapeño on a stick. The sponge is my go to for most things algae related but the stuff at the bottom just refuses to go quietly. I have neuropathy so I lose feeling in my hands by the time I get to the bottom of the DT. I won’t use a scraper anywhere near the silicone though.

 

[Fishy888]

Thanks for the support! I learn from my errors, so if you can learn from me, I glad I helped.
I should also add to the title of mine. "or how I learned to stop worrying and love the algae".

Same here. I’m learning that as well. This reef has been through the ringer but I’ve learned how to keep things going and now things are more stable. I’ve also learned a lot about where a budget reefer can get the best bang for the buck and where one really needs to spend the money.

 

[Mschmidt]

I’ve also learned a lot about where a budget reefer can get the best bang for the buck and where one really needs to spend the money.

I should probably learn this.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a ton of cyano out of the sump today. There was more than it looked like but it’s gone now. It’ll be interesting to see what if any effects there’ll be on the growth of the cyano and micro algae growth in the DT.

So far I don’t see any signs of majanos coming back. I’ll still be vigilant though since I understand there could be none one day then 100 little majanos the next. Hopefully there’ll continue to be none.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I got a ton of cyano out of the sump today. There was more than it looked like but it’s gone now. It’ll be interesting to see what if any effects there’ll be on the growth of the cyano and micro algae growth in the DT.

So far I don’t see any signs of majanos coming back. I’ll still be vigilant though since I understand there could be none one day then 100 little majanos the next. Hopefully there’ll continue to be none.

What's causing the cyano in the sump?

If it's flow, easy enough to throw a little powerhead in there.

 

[Fishy888]

It’s flow in both the DT and the sump. It’s especially so in the sump. I currently have the super cheap, no name circulation pumps that put out a narrow beam of flow in my DT. I’m replacing them with a Jebao scp-120 Wi-Fi sine cross flow pump in January. At that point I’ll use one of the cheap circulation pumps for mixing seawater and the other in the sump.

I’ve thought about using mollies in the sump to keep any cyano at bay. The fact that their progeny would be a nutritious source of live food is a huge plus as well. The only problem is the fact that I want to breed pods (bristle worms and asterinas as well) especially since I want a mandarin.

 

[Fishy888]

My wife wants to rearrange the living room which is where Perseverance Reef resides. I’ll be moving the system across the room. Since I’m getting the Hanna checker today I’ll be measuring my tap water as well as the tank water for phosphates. I don’t have a RO/DI unit yet but that’s coming. In the meantime I’m using water from the supermarket (RO, no DI but it does go through a bunch of filtration before and after the RO stage) for top off water (and the occasional batch of LaCl). I’ll have to use tap water for the major water change today.

I should be able to move the stand ok as long as I drain 75% of the water from the DT and the sump. It’ll take a while but it’ll look much better once I’m done especially since I’ll be able to get the cyano in the DT dealt with. I’m going to have to redo the aquascape one more time.

This will have to be the first and last move for this system however for the sake of stability. It’ll be on the wall with the stairway so it’s likely my wife will be happy with me leaving it there. It helps that there are several outlets close by that I can tap into for my system since I’m creating a second bank of outlets for heaters and lights. I’d like to plug both banks into different outlets so that I don’t ever trip breakers because of current draw. That’s a whole other world though.

 

[Mschmidt]

Edit:

For anyone who reads this I want to give a quick summary of why my DT overflowed on me. The U-tubes lost their siphon. This was due to me not having a means of restricting the flow in the return line. This caused the rate of flow from the pump to exceed the rate of draining from the DT. That lead to all the issues I had.

To resurrect a post, this is one of my fears with adding a sump to my fw tank. I have a gate valve but to keep syphon I should just restrict enough to keep water in the drain section of the overflow?

 

[tbrown]

To resurrect a post, this is one of my fears with adding a sump to my fw tank. I have a gate valve but to keep syphon I should just restrict enough to keep water in the drain section of the overflow?

You need to have a siphon break that keeps water in the overflow. Also, you need to make sure that there's enough flow going through the overflow to keep the air bubbles moving out of the siphon tube into the overflow. Not enough flow causes air to build up inside the tub and once there's a big enough air bubbles the siphon breaks and the sump will pump and drain down the sump and overflow the tank.