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.

I know it's not what you asked but what about something like a sixline wrasse? Generally pretty good pest eaters but often too aggressive for most peoples taste. Seems like a small but useful and attractive frag tank fish that would add just enough bioload.

Know anyone in healthcare? I just grab one from work occasionally when I need a new one (rubber stoppers swell and they become tough to use or measurements wear off).

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Have you considered just buying several gallons of bleach and cleaning the rocks that way? I've had good results the couple times I've done that. There are tons of threads around about cleaning old waste packed rock before use to help limit phosphate issues. Granted...I tend to always try to save money when I can (without using total crap gear), so I would also rather spend a few hours outside with the hose and some buckets, rinsing old sand free of detritus, than spend $200-300 on new live sand. That's just my frugal nature.

What color stunner strips are you running?

Good call and agreed. I'd rather start too low than too high. I can definitely tell when bleaching starts to happen. What's a safe increase time? 30 minutes a week? Gonna be super weird having a dark tank for the majority of the day except for 3 hours at night? Gonna wait till 7pm before I start the lights. Would be nice to get a BML strip or something just so I can at least view the tank, objectively if nothing else, to see and monitor the state of things, outside that tiny window of time

Negative. I think the closest par meter is about 2 hours from me.

Photoperiod advice on the new halides? Previous tank was 4x54 watt t5ho with decent reflectors, directly on the tank , tank 18" tall, going to 2x250 overdriven halides 12" above the water 24" tall tank. Previous photoperiod was 10 hours. Still toiling over what to supplement with too

Almost done!! Canopy has been sanded down on the inside and painted with two thick coats of appliance epoxy enamel. This stuff is great. Cures hard as a rock and is smooth as glass. Should do well. I also sanded down the exterior of the canopy and refinished the polyurethane to give it a clean fresh shine. All went swimmingly. I'm going to put a single piece of aluminum channel along the top of the light rail just to resist bowing over time. Very happy with how it all turned out though. Looks clean and pretty. Rocks and another 25 pounds of sand have begun curing as well. Man oh man I forgot how bad that smells. Garage reeks of death. Good thing it only lasts a couple days. Moved the tank to the back of the garage and put shims under the stand so it's perfectly level and tomorrow I'll be doing a full test run with tap water. Also will complete the finishing process of the side car cabinet I'm building to house the ballasts, controller displays, power strips, ect. I'll post a pic of that when it's done. Getting closer to being finished!

Doh!!! So much sanding!! On a positive note...manny let me borrow his Hanna checker and my new Pukani rock sitting in RODI water is measuring 0.07ppm phosphate. I can live with that. Tested the display twice an got 0.00 both times. Turned off the gfo/carbon reactor

Lol wanna sell me yours when my tank is transferred?

I'm willing and able to accept the challenge

Cb butterfly is actually on my wish list

Thanks rob! I am gonna do a cycle. I'm super anxious to start it actually. Just need to see this phosphate situation. I'm gonna cycle the new rock with some live sand in the garage. I'll also be removing a good bit of my current sandbed as well and relocating it to the new tank while it cycles. My aiptasia issue is beyond acceptable levels currently so I'm debating on puttin peppermints in pre or post tank change over. Gonna put the new hood over the old tank as well to get it light acclimated for a couple weeks. I spent all my extra money on other gear instead of supplemental lighting so I need to sell some sps to make that money back. Good luck on your tank move rob. I can't wait to see pictures

More teaser pics. Lol nothing fun, just lots of boring but necessary stuff. Feels real good to stock up though. Firstly, stained two coats on the light rail. It's not an exact match but close enough for me. They both look nearly black anyway in a dimly lit room with a bright tank. Second coat of polyurethane curing. In 48 hrs I'll sand and paint the inside. Anyone have real world experience with white gloss appliance epoxy? I'm expecting a two week full cure time before it's reef safe. About 20-25 pounds of pukani rock (with a few pieces of Fiji I had laying around) underwent a 72 hour 20% bleach bath to break up and dissolve a lot of the organic filth on the rocks. They're super clean now. I don't want to acid dip because they're so porous I don't want to risk ruining it. After a thorough rinse and an overnight rodi bath, Manny is gonna test the phosphate to help me know if it'll be safe to use as is, or if I'll need to treat with Lanthanum Chloride. One of my best friends IRL manages a pool store literally about a quarter mile from my house so I'll get the hookup on LC there and avoid hunting it down online. Today I went to Houston to meet a dude who was vacating the hobby and stocked me way up on misc stuff on the bigtime cheap. It's boring stuff, but for around $100, I now have quite a bit of salt, several gallons of ca, alk, and mg, about a years worth of carbon and gfo, and some magnetic probe and dosing line holders. Not a bad score. I feel good going into the upgrade knowing I've got plenty of all that. Funny story. I locked my keys in the truck immediately after loading it all up. So, had to hang out for an hour waiting on pop a lock. Oh well. At least he shared his beer with me while I waited. Hope to get the canopy painted before weekend

You two are a couple of goobers that's all there is to it. Quick update: Replaced the bulkheads and rebuilt the return standpipe. The old one got all hacked up to remove the bulkhead. Easy enough. Instead of cutting the stand pipe little by little until it fit perfectly into the little groove in the overflow box, I used the Dremel to open up that seat a little wider and deeper. Fits perfect. So I've got the overflow plumbing done and perfectly clean, as well as a perfectly clean weir thanks to some muriatic acid. New bulkheads fit and don't leak. Score. I officially hate removing silicone but got it all. Decided to go with silicone tubing. It's very flexible, doesn't kink as easily as vinyl, and is very easy to work with. My big goal was ease of removal if need be. It flexes just enough so I can slide the sump clear to the left and have a more useable space on the right side of the stand, while still allowing me to use my built in bracket in the sump so I don't have hoses laying around everywhere. Will wrap with foam insulation for light shielding. Not sure what to do with the other two brackets in the skimmer chamber. Canopy looks sloppy because it's covered in sawdust, and the cuts aren't perfectly square, but bear in mind, this will be 68" off the ground so most people would have to stand on their tip toes to get a good look at the top. The top of the light bracket is about 75" from the ground too, so unless a freakishly tall person comes to see the tank and has a thing for tops of canopies, my meticulous nature will not be applied to the look of the top because it's mostly not visible. The light hanging frame is being stained now and the first coat is drying. Halides fit and hang wonderfully. I've got about 1/2" clearance all around for them so they won't be touching the wood, and they're about 1/2" into the top, so the only spillage will be in the very back, and reflection out the top. Very happy with how simple and effective it turned out. Next step is to get the tank moved to more level ground, as it's in the garage toward the front, and there's about a 7 degree slope, so I won't put more than about 2" of water in it right now. Also want to sand the inside of the canopy and coat in white appliance epoxy. Lol sorry to tease yall, but there won't be any livestock pics for quite some time, just boring bulkhead pics. It's exciting to have no leaks! Also picked up this shiny co2 setup. Perhaps a calcium reactor is in my future. Either that or my planted tank is about to look a lot better.

That's some respectable growth and coloration! I tend to keep my ears to the ground on lighting technology mad products whether I'm in the market or using them, or not. I know these units have been raising eyebrows since they came out.

Lol I was seriously sore for 3 days like I had done am intense full body weight lifting session. Though it did motivate me to get back into the gym