BPB'S 90 GALLON SPS DOMINANT

[victoly]

30 minutes a week sounds like a reasonable ramp up to me

[Bpb]

Decisions Decisions. I've tried my hand at peppermint shrimp again. One week later, aiptasia continue spreading. I'm done with them. Copperband Butterfly or Matted Filefish. Now...both reef safe with caution, especially the filefish. I know Ty witnessed his mow through a couple hundred bucks worth of zoas. I've got several friends on Marsh-Reef in Houston that have kept them for years in their tanks without a single incident. My option of Copperband Butterfly is Petco. That's it. Nearest LFS is over 2 hours away and with my work schedule its tough to make that trip for one single fish. Petco can indeed order them for me. I've got a friend in houston offering me a matted filefish that has been housed in a mixed reef for some time now with no incident in coral eating, and for a modest price.

I cannot decide which would be a better plan. I need to do SOMETHING or this will continue to get further out of hand. Aiptasia X only serves as encouragement to spread I'm convinced. Every single one I hit turns into 10 now at this point. Lemon juice, no good. Peroxide, Failed. I don't feel safe slathering kalk paste all over them amongst my SPS.

Copperband Butterfly or Filefish. Vote away.

[FarmerTy]

CBB

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[Manny]

Make it two for a CBB.

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[Bpb]

Another update. Rock still curing still happening. Haven't bothered testing yet...oh wait because I don't own ammonia or nitrate test kits and don't wanna blow $35 on a kit I'll only use a couple times. Was just gonna let it simmer about a month and maybe have petco test it. Should be another 2-3 weeks and it ought to be ready. Tank is clean plumbed and ready as well

This week I will make up about 60 extra gallons of salt water, and start swapping 5 gallons or so a day between my tank and the Rubbermaid bin. Not really doing a true water change. Just trying to make sure the new water is matched and mixed well with the old water.

What I've actually been working on is building an auxiliary cabinet. Since my sump is so large and takes up virtually the entirety of the stand, I'll have to put my gfo/carbon/biopellet reactors actually IN the sump itself, and I'll be able to fit my ATO bucket under the stand but that's about it. I'll need something else to store my m80 ballasts, dosing jugs, dosing pumps, apex hardware ect. I want to keep all the electronics away from moisture so I just finished work on a sort of side-car equipment cabinet that way I don't have crap laying all over the floor. Nice and clean looking. No wires or anythin visible. Just tank and wood. I can't express how happy I am with the finish. I've had several attempts at finishing in the past and this one turned out the best by far. Only regret is I wish I had gone with a matte polyurethane. Oh well. Gloss is still alright. It's just much shinier than the tank stand is. Color isn't an exact match in the sunlight, but in a dark living room they're close enough. We only have lights on when mopping the floors. Otherwise the house stays dark all the time. We must be weird.

[Bpb]

If I could just add too...the top is just BEGGING for a display fuge or display quarantine

[Bpb]

Problem number 2 encountered (bulkheads were problem number 1)

In my entire time of reefing I've only used buckets. Never huge containers. No big deal never needed them. Since I need to double my water volume I realize I'm gonna need to have a good. 50-60 gallons of mixed aged saltwater ready for tank change so I started mixing it up.

Using plain old instant ocean in a 30 gallon brute for my first batch. Oddly it mixed at 1.027. I may have accidentally used an extra scoop, but either way a couple gallons of RODI should bring that down. Bigger issue. It rang out at 11 dKH and 400 ppm calcium.

That alk is much higher than I run and I'm not using extra buffered reef specific salt. So...I'm gonna have to figure out how to bring down 60 gallons of fresh salt water from 11 dKH to the 8.5 dKH I currently enjoy.

I was going to start just swapping a gallon a day from my display and the fresh salt containers. That way the shock on the system isn't too great, and I'll be keeping the water I remove so I can hopefully start drawing the new saltwater dKH down by mixing it with my tank water. The goal is for the new and old water to have perfectly matching parameters. I'll already be at a disadvantage having to change eveththing over in one single sitting, but having water not match will already make the struggle on the livestock worse.

I won't even attempt the change over until I get the parameters perfectly matched. Ideas? I wonder if dosing the new water with calcium would draw the alk down some.

[victoly]

You need to figure out what the deal is with your new salt. Mix up more batches or something, because if it's what you're going to be using, are you going to do this rigamarole every time? My advice would be to check the calibration of your refractometer before you start trying to dilute your freshly made saltwater. Its possible that your refrac is off and maybe the true salinity is like 1.028 or 1.029 which would explain the higher alk.

[Bpb]

Refractometer is calibrated freshly with 35 ppt solution so it's good to go. I've actually been using this salt for a while, haven't broken into the new stuff yet. The thing is, it hasn't caused an issue with how little I do water changes. 5 gallons into my 55 total water volume don't really cause havoc, just concerned that such a large amount will. Tests are still good. No funny stuff there I'm super careful with my testing procedures.

[victoly]

It probably makes more sense to slowly bring the old tank params more in line with what your new tank (by way of new salt) params will be. Of course this may all be moot once you get down to 35 ppt via dilution, just retest and take it from there.

[Bpb]

That's a good call. My only fear in doing that is that I'm running biopellets. Perhaps I should take them offline for the next month or so and let the alk come up a bit.

[Bpb]

What an efficient use of RODI waste water. First fill leak testing! Spent the better part of today work on the sump plumbing. I plan to use my existing manifold from the 55 gallon. Since my skimmer and reactors aren't getting any bigger, I see no point in running faster flow through the sump. I'm just not part of the "fastest flow through the sump as possible" camp. I want a gentle current through the refugium section, and want as few of bubbles and salt creep as I can have so I'm running sump flow a little on the low end. My pump is a Sicce Syncra 3.0, which is 715 GPH with a max head of 9 feet or so. I'll be running rough 5 feet of head, plus the BRS dual reactor, and TLF 150 for biopellets. I estimate roughly 300 GPH will make it through the return which is fine by me. I'll be getting my display flow from the MP40 and 2 - WP25's.

The slower flow will also help me keep bubbles down. After a bit of reading, experimenting, and about 5 trips to Lowes in one day, I came up with a double-reverse-durso design I honestly havent seen in any of my searching, and while it is somewhat bulky, it works perfect. The water in the sump is about as calm as a pond on a still day. A bubble or two will escape every now and then but otherwise it's perfectly still with about 300-350 gph running through it. Exactly what I wanted. My skimmer and some rock rubble will still fit perfectly in that chamber.

I'm going to be going alot bigger on rock and rubble than I had originally planned. I intend to fill the entire middle section with rock rubble, the available space in the skimmer section...and possibly the bubble trap baffles and return pump area with rubble as well. I know I'll run into some detritus settling, but with biopellets and GFO I actually struggle to get nitrate and phosphate UP some, so this will hopefully help in breeding more pods and maintaining a good nutrient balance. If i'm out of my mind, experts please chime in. I'm looking at keeping ALL of my 55 gallon rock plus about 50-60 pounds of pukani as well. I was going to use most of the older rock in the sump since it's so algae saturated, and populate the display with mostly newly cured rock. This way I keep all of my denitrifying bacteria, and get the benefit of a fresh scape.

Right now the only sound I can hear is the water inside the pipes. Ill try some foam pipe insulator to deaden it some, but as it is, it's not bad. The quieter the better though. I ditched the silicone tubing on the drain. The barbs necessary for it was reducing the line to 3/4" which was making some serious churning noise. Going with thin walled PVC helped widen the lines up some and quiet them down a little.

The good news though? PVC is glued in place. I'm happy with it. It works. No leaks. Getting closer!!

[Manny]

So what did the tests show? Are you cycled?

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[Bpb]

Tests are in. New rock is ready to go. Yesterday morning I dropped a large cichlid pellet in the size of a blueberry, and this morning I'm getting zero ammonia and nitrite, and 20 ppm nitrate. I'd say the new rock is ready. I'll leave it in there to keep cooking because also ordered another 25 pounds of aquaamaxx dry rock from marine depots Memorial Day sale. Score. Looks identical to brs reef saver rock and was only $1.89/lb. Cant beat that. The new stuff can just get populated while I make more water.

Next dilemma is the water parameters. They're running on the high end for alk in the new water. I want to keep my biopellets and gfo going because I want to be able to bed down a nitrate and phosphate spike that'll result from moving all my rocks, so for now, I'll just be trading water from my display and the brute can. Not so much water changing, but hoping my actual sps colonies will help reduce that alk via consumption over time to where all the water is homogenous. Take a few high alk gallons from the brute and swap it with low alk from the display. Repeat every couple days.

Lol this far into it and I'm being a cheap skate. I need at least a couple more brute cans for water so I have enough. But got to thinking. At nearly $40, a piece, I could get buckets of equal carrying capacity for half that price, but then I'd have a million buckets laying around, however buckets are easier to transport than a full brute can...hmm

I need about 30 more gallons of water, plus a place to drain the old tank and put the livestock into.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Bpb

[Bpb]

Another generous local reefer (not on ARC unfortunately but has a killer zoa dominated 90), let me borrow two 55 gallon capacity brutes so I'm set for water. Made up an additional 40 gallons so now I have 70 gallons of fresh saltwater cooking. For this batch I made today I opened another box of IO and used it so hopefully it won't be buffered so high.

I've been trading 3 gallons a day from my display with my new mixing saltwater and in a week of doing that my display has stayed at 8.4 dKH and the new water has gone from 11 dKH to 9.7 dKH today. Progress. My plan is working. The display is consuming the extra alkalinity little by little without shocking anything. Hopefully all 70 gallons of new water will match the old waters parameters within the next few weeks.

Halimeda has become out of hand in my 55 gallon. I'm gonna be putting all the halimeda infested rocks in the display into the sump after cutting off all the corals. I expect this will help me lower my alk and ca dosing by as much as half. No new tank pics but here's a coupl pics from the 55 gallon to show how much it's taken over. The corals are fine this halimeda just grows so fast and I physically can't reach in to prune it in many spots.

More good news. The magic number today is ONE. After extensive looking that's how many aiptasia I can find in my 55 gallon. This is a massive victory. I've been actively trying to beat aiptasia with every method I had access to for about two years with nothing but failure. Now I finally got a batch of peppermint shrimp that discovered these tastey treats. 3 peppermint shrimp have decimated my aiptasia population from several hundred, down to one (that I can see) in just a couple weeks. So happy.

[Manny]

All great news. I'm anxious to see the transition. Keep up the good and interesting updates.

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[Bpb]

Display Alk: 8.4 dKH @ 1.026

30 gallon Brute: 9.3 dKH @ 1.025

45 gallon Brute: 8.8 dKH @ 1.024

Gah! Take forever!!! Need to homogenize the salinities. One would think that's as easy as just adding salt. No so fast my friend. That'll increase my alk in each mixing container.

At this point I have to decide. Continue trying 3-5 gallon water swaps every day on the display with the mixing containers? Will that begin to stress stuff too heavily? Dose a ton of calcium chloride in each mixing container, drawing the calcium way up into the high 400's/low 500's in order to draw alk down? HMMMMM....

This is literally the only thing I'm waiting on now. Supplemental lighting for the halides would be nice, but not essential. After not hearing back from multiple emails with BML, and other strip options being lacking in...well...options/power, I'm thinking about just going with a 2x54 watt LET retrofit and running a couple UVL Super Actinic T5HO bulbs to enrich the lacking violet spectrum in Radiums.

[Bpb]

Tomorrow is the day!!!!! You better hydrate, Manny, and being your IPA drinking face with you lol. Finally happening. My new rock is super ready. In the past week I've thrown three cichlid jumbo pellets and half a frozen shrimp in, testing ammonia daily and never get a reading so I think it's ready. I've got a bottle or bio spira I'll use as well though.

Today was easily the most depressing day I've had in the hobby...period. Today, I sold easily 70% of my sps mass. Gone. The entire right side of the tank is anemone and softies only. My dinner plate sized purple montipora cap is now 5" across only. Shattered into about 100 pieces trying to frag it and apologizing to the buyer over an over while it was breaking in tiny pieces instead of big neat ones. He was understanding and looked sadder than I did at seeing such a big healthy specimen fall apart. Completely chopped up an apple sized tricolor valida colony, cut up my 8" tall Cali tort colony, red planet colony gone. Cantaloupe sized raspberry cheesecake gone, 40+ 6" long branches of various stags gone. So sad. Tomorrow is exciting though. I think my Saddness will quickly turn to gladness when I see the new tank running. Gonna burn the midnight oil and clean out the skimmer, return pump, move all the electrical over to the new auxiliary cabinet. Will take lots of pics. Wish me luck!!!

[victoly]

Luck, my friend.

[Manny]

IPA drinking face?!? More like I'm ready to vomit face. I won't believe someone can actually drink one of those until I see it. However, I am super excited about seeing this change over. I an always glad to help.

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[Bluemoon]

IPA drinking face?!? More like I'm ready to vomit face. I won't believe someone can actually drink one of those until I see it. However, I am super excited about seeing this change over. I an always glad to help.

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Hey don't knock them until you've tried a few! haha Good luck B, the transition is really well planned. Can't wait to see a fts of the new setup happy and running.

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[Manny]

IPA drinking face?!? More like I'm ready to vomit face. I won't believe someone can actually drink one of those until I see it. However, I am super excited about seeing this change over. I an always glad to help.

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Hey don't knock them until you've tried a few! haha Good luck B, the transition is really well planned. Can't wait to see a fts of the new setup happy and running.

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I did try one. I spit it out and dumped the rest down the sink. I then gave Bpb the remaining 5 pack. now today I will witness if it is truly possible for anyone to drink such a grotesque beverage.

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[Bpb]

Well I'll give a written report of my progress today.

First and foremost, for those who were interested...Manny was too late to witness me consume his IPA. I consumed them yesterday before he even made it over. The Sam Adams IPA is actually a tad lower in alc content from other IPAs, but is actually more bitter. Not a bad option, but sorry Manny, if you wanna get introduced to IPAs, that one's ok, drinkable, but not the best. Tonight for the tank build I decided to go with Dogfishhead 90 minute IPA. Actually havent tried this one, but I'm a fan of craft biers, so I'm happy to report it's just delightful. I'll be going with this one again. Plus I like that it comes in a 4 banger, instead of a six pack. Anyhow, this isnt a beer forum, so I'll move forward

I went to houston today to purchase some supplemental lighting. I picked up two Workhorse 7 ballasts, A bunch of wiring, some endcaps and standoffs, and 6 new UVL Super Actinic VHO T12's. Some of you saw the difficulty I've had with one of our custom LED sponsors, unfortunately, and this was a decent deal, $70 total, so I decided to pick it up. Hopefully I'll get my custom LED strip built eventually, but in the mean time, When I feel up to it, I'll try to figure out how to wire these VHOs. It's only appropriate that I go with the gold standard in SPS color and growth lighting combo. Radiums, M80 ballasts, and Super Actinic VHOs. What can I say. I guess I'm a vintage kinda dude. I like old school music and instruments as well. I guess I like old school lighting too.

So this has been a more difficult transfer than I expected. I've gotten about 6 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours so when I got home from houston this morning, I crashed and took a 4 hour cat nap. I should have spent that time cleaning my skimmer and return pump, and re-routing my wires and plumbing to prepare for the tank move, but I slept. I brought the last of my SPS corals to save over to a buddy's house here locally. And, ARC member Chaosfyre came and picked up the last of the SPS for sale. So...Going into this transfer, I'm largely SPS free. the only things that are making the transfer are my Bird of Paradise, what's left of my purple montipora cap that was stuck to the huge rock, and some random half dead encrusted bases. I literally got rid of 95% of my SPS coral load, which probably makes up a good 70% overall. Sad to see it all go. Good news is, I have lots of frags in lots of tanks that I intend to collect once things stabilize, in addition to those that I've sold. I also made enough cash in sales to afford probably two BML strips if I can sort things out (which I still hope to). Some of these locals got some spectacular deals. Some folks got frags I'd have paid $75 a piece for, but only charged $10a piece. Desperation has a nice price lowering effect. Glad to make fellow local reefers happy though.

So Manny was a huge help in tonights transfer. I appreciate the hand sir...even though you did break the door on my stand. It's repairable though. That loud crack we heard was the wood on that door splitting around the hinges. I may not even fuss with it because it's barely noticeable and doesn't affect the stand's structural integrity. It took forever to get all of the rocks and corals removed and into their containers. The fish and softies are now in a 30 gallon sterilite plastic storage tote, with the apex controlling the temp via temp probe and heater, along with a wp25 providing flow. They could theoretically live indefinitely in that environment I guess. I managed to get the Leopard Wrasse into a measuring cup with sand since the move stressed it out, but a mere 30 minutes after putting together the holding container, she left her sand filled cup and took to cruising around and checking out the temporary digs, and the clown quickly found the RBTA and hasn't left it since. I guess they're happy. My favias and acans all have lots of feeders out too, so I think they're good. The new tank got filled without hiccups, no leaks. Right now I am running my Sicce Syncra 3.0 as the pump to run the biopellets and the BRS dual reactor. I am not running the skimmer for now because I added a bottle of BioSpira to help keep from losing bacteria, I know the pellets like a skimmer running, but at this point I'm trying to prevent them from going anaerobic. I'll replace the carbon and GFO in the morning to clean up the water from the move. It's still very cloudy.

I've got all the new rock in there, along with my toadstool, and most the zoas. Toadstool actually has all of it's polyps out and the zoas are all open. Water is insanely cloudy though and I'm hoping it settles here soon. I may wait till morning to add the fish and remainder of softies as I'm getting pretty tired. I've got my MP40 running on reef crest on the highest setting, and a WP25 running on W1 high speed so I'm hoping that will help draw everything down into the sump. I still have about 3 gallons of sand I'm going to rinse and add tomorrow morning, but at this point a scape is pointless. I can't see anything. I'm exhausted, and have been at this for 9 hours now. I'm gonna clean up the house now and go to bed. Pics to follow tomorrow

[Bpb]

Oh and for Ty...yes I double checked my salinity. Both the new display, and the holding container are at 1.025. Refractometer calibrated as well as confirmed against Mannys refractometer which was also calibrated. Good to go there...and as I'm only dealing with fish, softies, and Lps for now, dosing pumps disconnected and cleaned with RODI. No need to dose till I start bring my sps back over. I honestly wonder how much sponge death I'll have. My entire sump and skimmer were caked with sponges and my rocks undersides all felt slimy because they were 100% covered in sponge life on the dark sides.

[Bpb]

Tank fully installed now and aquascaped. I ran my t5s for a day so I could get a good look at everything. Took some tweaking but I think I have the rock and softies mostly in their final locations. I successfully removed every shred of Halimeda I could from the display. Nitrate 5ppm, and ammonia 0 pp, with salinity at 1.026. Good all around. Haven't tested calcium or alk yet. Fish all look good and are cruising around. One thing I'll want to do very soon is potentially beef up the cuc. I see more peppermints, emerald crabs, and maybe an urchin in my future. Snails too

For the aquascape, probably 70 % of my old rock went at the bottom in the dark and new rock on top. The scape isn't super artistic. Lots of caves and levels of flat area for sps. No intricate towers or epoxy or drilling. Just a big stack with some shelf areas. Once I get the corals in, you won't see much rock anyway after a while.

I got the wiring completed today. I intended to have it be super organized but no matter what I tried, I ended up with a huge rats nest behind the stand but it's out of sight so that's what counts. Hung the halides today so I'll begin running them tomorrow on a short photoperiod. I'll find out quick if they're gonna work from a heat standpoint. If not, I'll consider getting some eballasts which should run cooler, and if that doesn't work, back to t5 I will go.

I also sold the vho pack to Dustin pedretti. Just didn't feel like messing with diy wiring. I have a phobia of electronics and fire. Matter of fact, I'm slightly terrified these prefab halides are gonna catch fire.

I'll post pics tomorrow. Cannot wait to get my sps back. Tank looks so empty. So much rock.